Preantepenultimate
adj, noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 Synonym of preantepenult (“the last syllable but three of a word or other utterance; the fourth-to-last syllable”). obsolete, rare
"[I]f one vvas to ſay σῶματος, this vvould be all one as σόὸματος, and as if an Acute vvas placed on the Pre-antepenultimate, vvhich is never tolerated."
- 1 Three before the end; fourth to last. not-comparable
"Words of this termination [-ites] have the accent of the words from which they are formed, which sometimes occasions the accent to be placed even on the preantepenultimate syllable, as Gileadites from Gilead, and so of others."
Example
More examples"This sentence's preantepenultimate word is “preantepenultimate”."
Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *per- Proto-Indo-European *preh₂-der. Proto-Italic *prai Proto-Italic *prai- Latin prae-lbor. Middle English pre- English pre- 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 English preantepenultimate From pre- (prefix meaning ‘physically in front of, before’) + antepenultimate (“(adjective) two before the last in a series; (noun) the second before the last in a series; (phonetics) syllable that comes two before the last in a word”).
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.