ultimate sacrifice
Dying for others
Ultimate sacrifice refers to giving one's life for a cause, country, or other people.
The phrase appears most often in military and heroic contexts: Three firefighters made the ultimate sacrifice that day.
The modifier ultimate signals that no greater price exists—death represents the ceiling of what can be given.
Sometimes used loosely for major non-fatal sacrifices, though this dilutes the phrase's weight.
- AlamoTexas Revolution battleground
- honorHigh regard, moral dignity
- martyrdomSuffering for conviction
- noble deathHonorable, selfless dying
- final actConcluding portion of drama
courage · paid the price · memorial · bravery · civil rights leaders · gold star · selflessness · Calvary · last stand · fallen heroes · gave their lives · agape love · greater good · redemption · altruism · Golgotha · atonement · suffragists
- heroismbravery, valor, hero, courage, heroism
- Doublespeakcollateral damage, enhanced interrogation, friendly fire, regime change, neutralize
- martyrdommartyrs, martyr, Christian martyrs, Catholic martyrs, Stephen
- offeringsburnt offering, altar offerings, sin offering, peace offering, oblations
ultimate sacrificeminor inconvenience
token gesture · nothing · no skin off one's nose · first world problem · minimal effort
ultimate sacrificeself-preservation
Instinct to survive danger
looking out for number one · cowardice · selfishness · self-interest · desertion
sacrifice, ultimate, ultimately, sacrificing, penultimate, sacrifices, sacrificial, sacrificially