penultimate

Etymology
From, from +.

Adjective

 * 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
 * 5) * 1907 Gelett Burgess Are You a Bromide? (New York: B. W. Heubsch) cover blurb:
 * This Book is the Proud Purple Penultimate!!
 * 1) * 2002 January, Claire Holt, "California Driving", Los Angeles volume 47 no 1 p. 84:
 * This treatment, where two therapists massage the body using warm oils infused with plant extracts, is truly the penultimate experience.
 * This Book is the Proud Purple Penultimate!!
 * 1) * 2002 January, Claire Holt, "California Driving", Los Angeles volume 47 no 1 p. 84:
 * This treatment, where two therapists massage the body using warm oils infused with plant extracts, is truly the penultimate experience.

Usage notes
While the Latinate is predominant in written works, the traditional English expressions for this idea were  and (less often). Following the 1920s, American use has favored to the point that  functions as a Britishism. Although continues to be somewhat more popular in Britain,, , etc. have been gaining in popularity.

Synonyms

 * ,, , , , , , , last but one, last ~ but one

Antonyms

 * second

Translations

 * Albanian:
 * Armenian: ,
 * Belarusian: перадапо́шні
 * Bulgarian: предпосле́ден
 * Catalan:
 * Chinese:
 * Cantonese: 尾二
 * Mandarin: 倒數第二的
 * Czech:
 * Danish: næstsidst
 * Dutch:
 * Estonian:
 * Faroese: næstsíðstur
 * Finnish: toiseksi viimeinen, viimeistä edellinen
 * French: ,
 * Galician: penúltimo
 * German:
 * Greek:
 * Hungarian:
 * Icelandic: næstsíðastur
 * Indonesian: kedua terakhir
 * Italian:
 * Japanese: 最後から二番目, 次末
 * Latin: paenultimus
 * Macedonian: претпоследен
 * Malay:
 * Norwegian:
 * Bokmål: nest sist
 * Persian: یکی مانده به آخر
 * Polish:
 * Portuguese:
 * Romanian:
 * Russian:
 * Serbo-Croatian:
 * Cyrillic: пре̏тпосљедњӣ, пре̏тпоследњӣ, прѐдзадњӣ
 * Roman:, prȅtposlednjī,
 * Slovak:
 * Slovene: predzadnji
 * Spanish: ,
 * Swedish: näst sist
 * Turkish: sondan bir önceki
 * Ukrainian: передоста́нній
 * Welsh: gobennol

Noun

 * 1)  A penult, a next to last, particularly:
 * 2)  The penultimate day of a month.
 * 3) * 1529 August 30, Bishop Stephen Gardiner, letter (1933), 33:
 * At Woodstock, the penultimate of August.
 * 1)  The penultimate syllable of a word or metrical line.
 * 2)  The penultimate element of a collection of curves.
 * 3)  The penultimate (next to lowest) card in a suit.
 * 1)  The penultimate element of a collection of curves.
 * 2)  The penultimate (next to lowest) card in a suit.

Translations

 * Finnish: toiseksi viimeinen, viimeistä edellinen
 * French:
 * Galician: penúltimo
 * German: vorletzt
 * Italian:
 * Norwegian:
 * Bokmål: nest siste
 * Russian:
 * Serbo-Croatian:
 * Cyrillic: прѐдзадњӣ, пре̏тпоследњӣ
 * Roman:, prȅtposlednjī
 * Spanish: ,