penultimate
/pɪˈnʌl.tɪ.mɪt/ adjective, noun
Forms penultimates pænultimate
- adjective (UK, in US usually formal, literary or scholarly) Next to last, second to last; immediately preceding the end of a sequence, list, etc.
- adjective (linguistics) Of or pertaining to a penult.
- adjective (mathematics, rare) Relating to or denoting an element of a related collection of curves that is arbitrarily close to a degenerate form.
- adjective (proscribed) pre-eminent, ultimate, best; par excellence, top-quality
- noun (uncommon) A penult, a next to last, particularly:
- noun (obsolete, rare) The penultimate day of a month.
- noun (linguistics, literature, uncommon) The penultimate syllable of a word or metrical line.
- noun (mathematics, obsolete, rare) The penultimate element of a collection of curves.
- noun (card games, uncommon) The penultimate (next to lowest) card in a suit.
Synonyms
next to last next-to-last second to last second-to-last second from last second-from-last second last second-last last but one last penultimate but one penult penultima
Antonyms
Etymology
From Latin paenultimus (“penultimate”) + -ate (adjective-forming suffix), from paene (“almost”) + ultimus (“last”). Equivalent to pene- + ultimate. Compare French pénultième.
From a substantivation of the above adjective. Equivalent to Latin paenultimus + -ate (noun-forming suffix).
Webster’s 1913
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “penultimate”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details