antepenultimate

• antepaenultimate
• antepænultimate

ante- meaning before, pen- from the Latin paene meaning almost, and ultimate from the Latin ultimus meaning last

antepenultimate (not comparable)

1. Two before the last, i.e., the one immediately before the penultimate, in a series.

   This book has ten chapters — chapter 8 is the antepenultimate one.

   • 1677, Robert Plot, “Of the Heavens and Air”, in The natural history of Oxford-shire: Being an Essay Toward the Natural History of England‎, page 15:

     […] they [the sounds of an echo] next strike the ultimate secondary object, then the penultimate and antepenultimate; […]

• peripenultimate
• propenultimate
• third last
• third to last

• (adjectives denoting syllables): ultimate (last), penultimate (last but one), preantepenultimate (last but three), propreantepenultimate (last but four)

antepenultimate (plural antepenultimates)

1. Two before the last in a series. e.g. (..., antepenultimate, penultimate, ultimate)
2. The syllable that comes two before the last in a word.

   The words animal, citizen, comedy, dangerous, obvious, and antepenultimate are stressed on the antepenultimate.

• penultimate
• preantepenultimate
• propreantepenultimate
• ultimate