Antepenultimate
adj, noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 The second before the last in a series; the item preceding the penultimate and ultimate.
- 2 the 3rd syllable of a word counting back from the end wordnet
- 3 The syllable that comes two before the last in a word.
"The words animal, citizen, comedy, and antepenultimate are stressed on the antepenultimate."
- 1 Two before the last, i.e., the one immediately before the penultimate, in a series. not-comparable
"This book has ten chapters — chapter 8 is the antepenultimate one."
- 1 third from last wordnet
Example
More examples"In Portuguese, every word stressed on the antepenultimate syllable has a diacritical mark."
Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *h₂ent- Proto-Indo-European *-s Proto-Indo-European *h₂énts Proto-Indo-European *-i Proto-Indo-European *h₂énti Proto-Italic *anti Classical Latin ante Classical Latin ante-lbor. English ante- Latin paene Proto-Indo-European *h₂el- Proto-Italic *-tm̥mos Proto-Italic *oltm̥mos Latin ultimus Latin paenultimus Proto-Indo-European *-h₂ Proto-Indo-European *-éh₂ Proto-Indo-European *-tós Proto-Indo-European *-eh₂tos Proto-Italic *-ātos Latin -ātuslbor. English -ate English penultimate English antepenultimate From ante- + penultimate, modelled on Latin antepaenultima/antepēnultima (syllaba) (“last syllable but two in a word”), from the feminine of antepaenultimus/antepēnultimus (“antepenultimate”).
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.