antepenultimate
English
Alternative forms
- antepaenultimate (rare)
- antepænultimate (archaic)
Etymology
From ante- + penultimate, modelled on[1] Latin antepaenultima/antepēnultima (syllaba) (“last syllable but two in a word”), from the feminine of antepaenultimus/antepēnultimus (“antepenultimate”).[2]
Adjective
antepenultimate (not comparable)
- 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; […]
Synonyms
- peripenultimate
- propenultimate
- third last
- third to last
- triultimate
Coordinate terms
- (adjectives denoting syllables): ultimate (last), penultimate (last but one), preantepenultimate (last but three), propreantepenultimate (last but four)
Translations
two before the last
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Noun
antepenultimate (plural antepenultimates)
- Two before the last in a series. e.g. (..., antepenultimate, penultimate, ultimate)
- The syllable that comes two before the last in a word.
- Synonym: antepenult
- The words animal, citizen, comedy, dangerous, obvious, and antepenultimate are stressed on the antepenultimate.
Related terms
References
- “antepenultimate, adj. and n.”, in OED Online
, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, 2016, archived from the original on 2023-11-04.
- Douglas Harper (2001–2024), “antepenultimate (adj.)”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.
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