penultimate
adjective
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
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
Galen Bacharier, USA TODAY, 25 June 2024
The penultimate episode of Feud: Capote vs. The Swans sees Babe Paley, the New York high-society socialite played by Naomi Watts, succumb to cancer and take her dying breath on her bed, estranged from friend Truman Capote (Tom Hollander).
—Hilton Dresden, The Hollywood Reporter, 18 June 2024
McElhenney convinces Reynolds not to fly in for the season’s penultimate match, since two other teams would have to lose their own matches, in addition to a Wrexham win, for automatic promotion to happen that day.
—Alan Sepinwall, Rolling Stone, 18 June 2024
In the penultimate episode, Ava is advocating for Deborah to apologize for a joke.
—Kate Aurthur, Variety, 13 June 2024
See all Example Sentences for penultimate 
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'penultimate.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Dictionary Entries Near penultimate
Cite this Entry
“Penultimate.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/penultimate. Accessed 2 Jul. 2024.
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