penultimate

1. (UK, in US usually formal, literary or scholarly) Next to last, second to last; immediately preceding the end of a sequence, list, etc.Examples: "[…] they [the sounds of an echo] next strike the ultimate secondary object, then the penultimate and antepenultimate; […]"; "But it should frequently happen that offspring should resemble its penultimate rather than its latest phase, and should thus be more like a grand-parent than a parent."; "“Your clothes don't weigh more'n seven pounds. And seven from—hum—say one hundred an' twenty-three—one hundred an' sixteen is your stripped weight.” But at the penultimate word, Mary cried out with sharp reproof: “Why, Billy Roberts, people don't talk about such things.”"Synonyms: next to last, next-to-last, second to last, second-to-last, second from last, second-from-last, second last, second-lastUKliterarynot-comparable

2. (linguistics) Of or pertaining to a penult.not-comparable

3. (mathematics, rare) Relating to or denoting an element of a related collection of curves that is arbitrarily close to a degenerate form.not-comparablerare

4. (proscribed) pre-eminent, ultimate, best; par excellence, top-qualityExamples: "This Book is the Proud Purple Penultimate!!"; "This treatment, where two therapists massage the body using warm oils infused with plant extracts, is truly the penultimate experience."; "Ultimately, I reach the most penultimate existential questions: “What is the meaning of this? Is there any?”"not-comparableproscribed