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Message: <blockquote data-quote="reanjr" data-source="post: 3118635" data-attributes="member: 20740">How do you know when someone is using it in that manner?  If someone is talking about "The Penultimate Guide to Fighters!!!11!1one!1!eleven" how can you tell from context that they intend to mean more than ultimate?If it actually comes into common use in that context, then yes it should be accepted.  Until then, it is not effectively conveying the meaning the user of the word intends, so it is probably poor writing.  But in most contexts, "better than ultimate", and "just beneath ultimate" are not distinguishable, because rarely are either of the terms being used literally (had to throw that in <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" />).It could even be that penultimate has passed into the realm of colloquial usage among certain groups (i.e. gamers).  I can honestly say that I don't recall ever hearing the word used outside of archaic usage or gaming.  People nowadays just say next to last.  Perhaps you are not current on gamer speak.  Just as crunch and fluff mean something totally different among gamers than non-gamers, maybe penultimate has gained the same status as the word "uber" among some groups.  It's not being used correctly in the strictest sense, but it has gained acceptance among the group as a buzzword (there goes another one).</blockquote>

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