Definition of "penultimate" []

• Next to last. (adjective)
• Linguistics Of or relating to the penult of a word: penultimate stress. (adjective)
• The next to the last. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "The former Republican New York gubernatorial candidate pens a letter insulting a journalist "Maybe it's your youth, immaturity, inexperience, or what appears to be an endless desire to ingratiate yourself with people in power...", then misuses the word "penultimate.""
• "No words but monosyllables or contracted forms have the accent on the last; dissyllables are therefore always accented on the first, and polysyllables on the first or second, according as the penultimate is short or long, _Lúcius, cecídi_."
• "graeme on 8-19-2008 at 1:14 pm yay for the proper usage of the word penultimate!"