Talk:second to last

Noun. I believe that the nominal use of this is best considered a "fused-head" construction, with an omitted, known-from-context noun. The synonym and the blue-linked translations are all adjectives in their entries.

As an adjective the entry is meritorious, though it might be SoP, because of the US/UK, register, and possibly regional differences in usage, IMO. DCDuring TALK 16:31, 8 January 2013 (UTC)
 * Kept. No consensus.--Jusjih (talk) 01:54, 8 December 2013 (UTC)

Noun
Doesn't actually exist. — LlywelynII  16:27, 20 June 2014 (UTC)

"British usage"
Go check ngrams: "last but one" is still somewhat more common, but these other forms are gaining and are certainly no longer mere Americanisms. — LlywelynII  16:27, 20 June 2014 (UTC)

This can't be right
The few times I've come across this expression it meant two before the last. For example, in the alphabet Z is the last letter, Y is the next to last letter and X is the second to last letter. Do people really use this phrase to mean the same as "next to last"? Would anyone actually say that Y is the second to last letter of the alphabet? --Khajidha (talk) 18:34, 15 April 2015 (UTC)
 * Unfortunately, this expression is used mostly "incorrectly" and leads to misunderstanding and ambiguity. I would agree with you that X is the second to the last letter of the alphabet, Y being the first to the last, and Z being the last. The confusion may have something to do with referring to something being "second/third from the right". (Then again, it may just have something to do with poor mathematical ans spatial skills ;-). If the letters of the alphabet are listed in a single line from left to right, the rightmost letters are "w x y z". Y is clearly second from the right, but first from (i.e., with respect to) the last letter, Z. Recommendation: avoid the expression whenever possible and otherwise make sure all parties agree on a common frame of reference. --Canarris (talk) 15:23, 18 June 2015 (UTC)

second to the last
It's the second to the last paragraph in the section --Backinstadiums (talk) 16:42, 7 August 2020 (UTC)