PROXIMATE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does proximate mean? 

• PROXIMATE (adjective)
  The adjective PROXIMATE has 2 senses:

1. closest in degree or order (space or time) especially in a chain of causes and effects

2. very close in space or time

  Familiarity information: PROXIMATE used as an adjective is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• PROXIMATE (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Closest in degree or order (space or time) especially in a chain of causes and effects

Context example:

interest in proximate rather than ultimate goals

Similar:

immediate (immediately before or after as in a chain of cause and effect)

Antonym:

ultimate (furthest or highest in degree or order; utmost or extreme)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Very close in space or time

Context example:

proximate houses

Similar:

close (at or within a short distance in space or time or having elements near each other)

 Context examples 

This was the proximate cause, I suppose, of my dreaming about him, for what appeared to me to be half the night; and dreaming, among other things, that he had launched Mr. Peggotty's house on a piratical expedition, with a black flag at the masthead, bearing the inscription Tidd's Practice, under which diabolical ensign he was carrying me and little Em'ly to the Spanish Main, to be drowned.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)