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Glite Dictionary
next-to-last

next-to-last

4 5.1
The one before the last in a series
  • adjective
  • /ˈnɛkst tə lɑst/
translation icon : penúltimo
  • The next-to-last week of the college football regular season is upon us, friends.
  • next-to-last day
  • next-to-last game
  • next-to-last week

It was almost like the next to last revision pass before final publication.

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Examples

  • Let's see, this was I think the next to last slide I had up.

  • I would leave the cinema just after the next to last song.

    Dancer in the Dark (2000)

  • OK, so I we go down and we get the next to last ferry for the day.

  • Take a look at the next-to-last fight of the evening.

    Blog text (24)

  • But when we're recording this, I will tell you it is the next to last day of Mythbusters production.

  • It was almost like the next to last revision pass before final publication.

    Dr. Mayim Bialik

  • So welcome to the next to last penultimate lecture in our Smart close lecture series.

  • Social studies ranked either last or next-to-last and was consistently surpassed by language arts, reading, and mathematics, in this order.

    Academic text (1997)

  • Linfield's last home loss came in the next-to-last game of the 2008 season, a 17-9 nonconference defeat to Western Oregon...

    Blog text (22)

  • Today, on the next-to-last day of the year, I plan to reflect on my goals.

Synonyms

penultimate
vsnext-to-last
7 5.9

Second to last in a series

is the hyphenated phrase form of the same meaning

Antonyms

last
∞ 1.0

At the end and cannot be changed

final
∞ 1.0

Last and cannot be changed or reversed

Surface Forms

next-to-last positive
next-to-laster comparative
next-to-lastest superlative

Morphology

next-to-last = next + last (transparent) = to + next + last

The phrase is directly built from the components 'next', 'to', and 'last' and clearly means 'immediately before the last', which learners can derive from the parts.

Etymology

Next-to-last is made from the common words next and last, with 'to' showing they are next to each other, so it pictures the thing that is 'right before the last' one. So, next-to-last simply means the 'second from the end'.