Ultimate/penultimate
Ultimate means last and it often connotes superiority, especially when it appears in advertising copy, as in "The ultimate [the last word] in men's clothing." Penultimate means next-to-last, nothing more. It carries no connotation of superiority. So the actress who won an Oscar and gushed, "This is the penultimate experience of my life," surely was not to be taken literally.
Get The Lost Art of the Great Speech: How to Write It * How to Deliver It now with the O’Reilly learning platform.
O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.
