English Explanatory Dictionary

penultimate

English dictionary entry

Meanings

adj
  1. Next to last, second to last; immediately preceding the end of a sequence, list, etc.
  2. Of or pertaining to a penult.
  3. Relating to or denoting an element of a related collection of curves that is arbitrarily close to a degenerate form.
  4. pre-eminent, ultimate, best; par excellence, top-quality
noun
  1. A penult, a next to last, particularly
  2. A penult, a next to last
  3. The penultimate day of a month.
  4. The penultimate syllable of a word or metrical line.
  5. The penultimate element of a collection of curves.
  6. The penultimate (next to lowest) card in a suit.

Pronunciation

/pɪˈnʌltɪmət/ /pəˈnəltəmət/ /pɪˈnʌltəmət/ En-us-penultimate.ogg En-au-penultimate.ogg

Word forms

penultimate pænultimate penultimates

Etymology

Etymology tree Latin paene Proto-Indo-European *h₂el- Proto-Italic *-tm̥mos Proto-Italic *oltm̥mos Latin ultimus Latin paenultimus Proto-Indo-European *-h₂ Proto-Indo-European *-éh₂ Proto-Indo-European *-tós Proto-Indo-European *-eh₂tos Proto-Italic *-ātos Latin -ātuslbor. English -ate English penultimate From Latin paenultimus (“penultimate”) + -ate (adjective-forming suffix), from paene (“almost”) + ultimus (“last”). Equivalent to pene- + ultimate. Compare French pénultième.

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

Antonyms

second

Related words

penult ultimate peninitial

Derived words

antepenultimate penultimately penultimatum preantepenultimate prepenultimate propenultimate propreantepenultimate

Translations

Bulgarian: but see последен Finnish: toiseksi viimeinen Finnish: viimeistä edellinen French: avant-dernier Galician: penúltimo German: vorletzt Italian: penultimo Norwegian Bokmål: nest siste Russian: предпосле́дний Serbo-Croatian: прѐдзадњӣ Serbo-Croatian: пре̏тпоследњӣ Serbo-Croatian: prèdzadnjī Serbo-Croatian: prȅtposlednjī Spanish: penúltimo Spanish: anteúltimo
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