The Merriam-Webster Word of the Day for October 13, 2025, is "penultimate," an adjective. Penultimate describes something that is immediately before the last, meaning "next to last." It is a formal word always placed before the noun it modifies. An example sentence demonstrates its use in describing a television show's second-to-last episode. The text provides another example from a news article about soccer playoffs. The word has related noun synonyms, "penult" and "penultima," more often used for the second-to-last syllable in a word. All three words derive from Latin roots meaning "almost" and "last." Occasionally, "penultimate" might be used as a stronger version of "ultimate," but this is not standard. This usage is not typically found in formal writing or dictionaries. Its origin traces back to the Latin word "paenultima." The use of "penultimate" in its common meaning is emphasized.