Nextlasts

Nextlasts is a largely informal term used to refer to the elements that come immediately before the last element in a sequence, i.e., the penultimate elements of one or more sequences. The term is not widely recognized in formal mathematics or computer science, where penultimate or second-to-last are the preferred descriptors. When used, nextlasts may be pluralized to discuss several sequences or multiple instances within a dataset.

Etymology and variants: Nextlast is a compound of next and last, similar in idea to next-to-last or second-to-last. In most technical and educational contexts, penultimate is the standard term, and nextlasts appears mainly in informal writing, quick notes, or code comments where a less formal shorthand is convenient.

Usage and considerations: In a list of five items, the nextlast is the fourth item. In a collection of sequences, the nextlast of each sequence is the element just before its final element. Readers should be aware that nextlasts can be ambiguous outside of a narrow context, because penultimate has a more established meaning and antepenultimate denotes the third-to-last.

See also: penultimate, penult, antepenultimate, last, sequence.

Notes: Nextlasts is not widely adopted as a formal mathematical or programming term. When precision is important, it is safer to use penultimate (singular) or penultimate elements in plural.