"The high school soccer playoffs are down to their penultimate [pəˈnʌltəmɪt] round with the state semifinals looming later this week after a select few regional champions were crowned on Tuesday." — Matt Welch, The Plano (Texas) Star Courier, 2 Apr. 2025

penultimate [pəˈnʌltəmɪt]
adj

Penultimate means "occurring immediately before the last one," or in other words, "next to last." A formal adjective, it is always used before the noun it modifies.

from paenultima, the feminine of paenultimus, a Latin root from paene ("almost") and ultimus ("last")

English