penultimate

adjective

pen·ul·ti·mate pi-ˈnəl-tə-mət

Synonyms of penultimate next

: next to the last

the penultimate chapter of a book

: of or relating to the next to the last syllable of a word

a penultimate accent

penultimately adverb

Did you know?

Penultimate isn't the last word in words for things that are next to last. There is a pair of noun synonyms that are used commonly enough to have gained entry into abridged dictionaries: penult and penultima. Although all three can refer to something that's next to last, penult and penultima are usually a bit more specific; they are used most often to identify the next to last syllable of a word. All three derive from paenultima, the feminine of paenultimus, a Latin root from paene ("almost") and ultimus ("last"). You may occasionally hear the word penultimate used as an intensified version of ultimate, as in "a race they've called 'the penultimate challenge.'" This use isn't typically found in edited prose, however, or in dictionaries. One of our editors discusses it in this video.

Examples of penultimate in a Sentence

Belle was the penultimate person to die, just hours before a slave, fifty-three-year-old Alba, wandered in delirium away from his cabin and sat down to death in front of Carlyle's airing-out cottage. —

Edward P. Jones, The Known World, 2003

He threw harder in the last inning than he did in the first, whiffing pinch hitter Darryl Strawberry with a 97-mph heater for the penultimate out and blowing away the final hitter, Knoblauch, with a 96-mph fastball. —

Tom Verducci, Sports Illustrated, 27 Mar. 2000

… regulations have cleared the penultimate hurdle and appear ready to become law … —

John Aloysius Farrell, Sunday Denver (CO) Post, 2 Sept. 1984

Pompey … speaks of her mother's difficult death and of her own longings for death and rises to a rare moment of lyric power in the novel's penultimate paragraph. —

Joyce Carol Oates, New York Times Book Review, 3 Oct. 1982

the penultimate syllable of the word

Recent Examples on the Web

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

The Tigers’ penultimate possession drained the shot clock down to near zero and ended with a heave by Bates that found only iron. —

The Kansas City Star, Kansas City Star, 8 Feb. 2025 Evans Scholars alumni donate more than $15 million annually, and all proceeds from the BMW Championship, the penultimate PGA TOUR Playoff event in the PGA TOUR’s FedExCup competition, benefit the program. —

Todd Abeln, Twin Cities, 6 Feb. 2025 The show's penultimate season offered a significantly deeper probe into Eleven's (Millie Bobby Brown) backstory, and for the first time, saw the cast approaching the final fight from multiple points across the globe. —

Rachel Raposas, People.com, 27 Jan. 2025 The show’s biggest mistake is to delay a flashback to a pivotal and heartbreaking day in Xavier’s life until the penultimate hour of the eight-episode season. —

Judy Berman, TIME, 24 Jan. 2025 See all Example Sentences for penultimate