penultimate

pen·ul·ti·mate

adjective \pi-ˈnəl-tə-mət\

Definition of PENULTIMATE

1

: next to the last <the penultimate chapter of a book>

2

: of or relating to the next to the last syllable of a word <a penultimate accent>

— pen·ul·ti·mate·ly adverb

Examples of PENULTIMATE

1. the penultimate syllable of the word
2. 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
3. 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
4. … regulations have cleared the penultimate hurdle and appear ready to become law … —John Aloysius Farrell, Sunday Denver (CO) Post, 2 Sept. 1984
5. 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

Origin of PENULTIMATE

(see penult)

First Known Use: 1677