What does "eleventh-hour" mean?

Just before the moment that it is too late; in the nick of time; last-minute.

What is a synonym for "eleventh-hour"?

Common synonyms include: deathbed, last minute, later.

Eleventh-hour

adj

adj ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Adjective

1
Just before the moment that it is too late; in the nick of time; last-minute. idiomatic, not-comparable
"Eleventh-hour executive changes are not unique to this outgoing Administration — President Bill Clinton launched a number himself before leaving office."

Synonyms

All synonyms

deathbed last minute later

Example

More examples

"Eleventh-hour executive changes are not unique to this outgoing Administration — President Bill Clinton launched a number himself before leaving office."

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.