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What is the difference between ultimate and penultimate?

ultimate | penultimate | Derived terms |

Penultimate is a derived term of ultimate.

Penultimate is a related term of ultimate.



As adjectives the difference between ultimate and penultimate

is that ultimate is final; last in a series while penultimate is next to last, second to last; immediately preceding the end of a sequence, list, etc.

As nouns the difference between ultimate and penultimate

is that ultimate is the most basic or fundamental of a set of things while penultimate is a penult, a next-to-last thing, particularly.

ultimate

English

Adjective

(wikipedia ultimate) (-)
  • Final; last in a series.
  • * {{quote-book
    • , year= 1677 , isbn= , date= , author= (Robert Plot) , title= The natural history of Oxford-shire: Being an Essay Toward the Natural History of England , url= http://books.google.com/books?id=EUqd_M1x40QC&pg=PA15 , page= 15 , chapter= Of the Heavens and Air , passage= }}
  • (of a syllable) Last in a word or other utterance.
  • Being the greatest possible; maximum; most extreme.
    • the ultimate pleasure
    the ultimate disappointment
  • *
    • Hepaticology, outside the temperate parts of the Northern Hemisphere, still lies deep in the shadow cast by that ultimate "closet taxonomist," Franz Stephani—a ghost whose shadow falls over us all.
  • Being the most distant or extreme; farthest.
  • That will happen at some time; eventual.
  • Last in a train of progression or consequences; tended toward by all that precedes; arrived at, as the last result; final.
  • * Coleridge
    • those ultimate truths and those universal laws of thought which we cannot rationally contradict
  • Incapable of further analysis; incapable of further division or separation; constituent; elemental.
    • an ultimate constituent of matter

    Antonyms

    * proximate

    Derived terms

    * antepenultimate * penultimate * ultimateness

    Coordinate terms

    * (syllable adjectives)

    Related terms

    * ulterior * ultimatum * ultra * ultra-

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • The most basic or fundamental of a set of things
  • The final or most distant point; the conclusion
  • The greatest extremity; the maximum
  • (uncountable) The sport of ultimate frisbee.

    • External links

    * *

    Anagrams

    * ----

    penultimate

    English

    Alternative forms

    *

    Adjective

    (-)
  • Next to last]], second to last; immediately preceding the end of a sequence, list, [[etc.
  • * {{quote-book
    • , year= 1677 , isbn= , date= , author= (Robert Plot) , title=The natural history of Oxford-shire: Being an Essay Toward the Natural History of England , url= http://books.google.com/books?id=EUqd_M1x40QC&pg=PA15 , page= 15 , chapter= Of the Heavens and Air , passage= }}
  • * 1878 , , Life and Habit , ch. 10:
    • 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.
  • * 1913 , , The Valley of the Moon , ch. 3:
    • “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.”
  • (linguistics) Of or pertaining to a penult.
  • (math, rare) Relating to or denoting an element of a related collection of curves that is arbitrarily close to a degenerate form.

    • Usage notes

    While the Latinate penultimate'' is predominant in written works, the traditional English expressions for this idea were (last but one) and (less often) (second last). Following the 1920s, American use has favored (next to last) to the point that ''last but one'' functions as a Britishism. While ''last but one'' continues to be somewhat more popular in Britain, however, ''next to last , (second to last), have been gaining in popularity.

    Synonyms

    * next to last, next-to-last, second to last, second-to-last, second from last, second-from-last, second last, second-last, (now, chiefly, UK) last but one, last ~ but one

    Coordinate terms

    * (syllable adjectives)

    Derived terms

    * antepenultimate * penultimately * preantepenultimate * propenultimate * propreantepenultimate

    Related terms

    * penult * ultimate

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (uncommon) A penult, a next-to-last thing, particularly:
  • *1962 , Minutes of the Adjourned Meeting of 22nd Biennial Convention of the United Lutheran Church in America , XXII.iv:
  • *:Our Lutheran concern for the ultimates (the Gospel) has allowed us to neglect some of the penultimates (bodily healing), failing to stress the total implications of that ultimate Gospel.
  • # (obsolete, rare) The day of a month.
  • #* 1529 August 30 , Bishop Stephen Gardiner, letter (1933), 33:
  • At , the penultimate of August.
  • # (linguistics, literature, uncommon) The syllable of a word or metrical line.
  • #* 1728 , E. Chambers Cyclopædia :
  • Antepenultimate is that before the Penultimate , or the last but two.
  • # (math, obsolete, rare) The element of a collection of curves.
  • # (cards, uncommon) The (next to lowest) card in a suit.
  • #* 1876 , (Arthur Campbell-Walker), The Correct Card , Glossary page xiii:
  • Penultimate , the . — Beginning with the lowest card but one of the suit you lead originally, if it contains more than four cards.

    • Synonyms

    * (A next-to-last thing) penult

    References

    * Oxford English Dictionary'', 3rd ed. "penultimate, ''n.'' & ''adj. " Oxford University Press (Oxford), 2005.