Link Centre Dictionary

penultimate

pe·nul·ti·mate

UK/pɪˈnʌl.tɪ.mɪt/ US/pɛˈnʌl.tɪ.mɪt/ uncommon literary obsolete rare uk
adjective (1) noun (1)

adjective

1.

next to the last

  • “the author inadvertently reveals the murderer in the penultimate chapter”
  • “the figures in the next-to-last column”
Synonyms
Similar

noun

1.

the next to last syllable in a word

Synonyms

Origin

From Latin paenultimus (“penultimate”) + -ate (adjective-forming suffix), from paene (“almost”) + ultimus (“last”).

Related words

Broader terms

WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.