Lone Prairie Magazine

Lone Prairie Magazine

Arts & Entertainment

The ultimate blog post about the word penultimate.

Pretty sure I won't have more to say about it after this.

Julie R. Neidlinger
Feb 10, 2026
∙ Paid
Left to right, the penultimate guy has no hair. Photo by Julie R. Neidlinger, at Texas A&M.

It started with a simple statement, which later permuted itself into raging brain activity as I tried to get to sleep.

Why would such a great word be used for such a stupid thing? Who cares about the next-to-last? I thought as I tossed and turned in bed. Why would …

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