Jump to content

last

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
See also: lást, Last, läst, låst, and læst

English

[edit]
WOTD – 15 November 2025
English numbers (edit)
1 2  → [a], [b], [c], [d]
    Cardinal: one
    Ordinal: first
    Abbreviated ordinal: 1st
    Latinate ordinal: primary
    Reverse order ordinal: last
    Latinate reverse order ordinal: ultimate
    Adverbial: one time, once
    Multiplier: onefold
    Latinate multiplier: single
    Distributive: singly
    Germanic collective: onesome
    Collective of n parts: singlet, singleton
    Greek or Latinate collective: monad
    Greek collective prefix: mono-
    Latinate collective prefix: uni-
    Fractional: whole
    Elemental: singlet, singleton
    Greek prefix: proto-
    Number of musicians: solo
    Number of years: year

Pronunciation

[edit]

Etymology 1

[edit]

From Middle English laste, latst, syncopated variant of latest, both ultimately from Old English latost. Doublet of latest.

Adjective

[edit]

last (not comparable)

  1. Final, ultimate, coming after all others of its kind.
    Will try to fix it by myself for now: as a last resort, we can always take it to a grease monkey.
    Eyes Wide Shut was the last film to be directed by Stanley Kubrick.
    • 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter V, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:
      Then everybody once more knelt, and soon the blessing was pronounced. The choir and the clergy trooped out slowly, […] , down the nave to the western door. […] At a seemingly immense distance the surpliced group stopped to say the last prayer.
  2. Most recent, latest, last so far.
    The last time I saw him, he was married.
    I have received your note dated the 17th last, and am responding to say that […] (archaic usage)
    • 1847 January – 1848 July, William Makepeace Thackeray, Vanity Fair […], London: Bradbury and Evans […], published 1848, →OCLC:
      She told him the last news about little Georgy, and how he was gone to spend that very day with his sisters in the country.
    • 2013 May 25, “No Hiding Place”, in The Economist‎[1], volume 407, number 8837, page 74:
      In America alone, people spent $170 billion on “direct marketing”—junk mail of both the physical and electronic varieties—last year.
  3. Farthest of all from a given quality, character, or condition; most unlikely, or least preferable.
    He is the last person to be accused of theft.
    The last person I want to meet is Helen.
    More rain is the last thing we need right now.
  4. Being the only one remaining of its class.
    Japan is the last empire.
  5. Supreme; highest in degree; utmost.
    • 1802, Robert Hall, Reflections on War:
      Contending for principles of the last importance.
  6. Lowest in rank or degree.
    Three contestants will win awards, but the last prize is just a book voucher.
    • 1797 May 8 (first performance), Richard Cumberland, “The Last of the Family. A Comedy.”, in Frances Marianne [Cumberland] Jansen, editor, The Posthumous Dramatick Works of the Late Richard Cumberland, Esq. […], volume II, London: […] [F]or G[eorge] and W[illiam] Nicol, […]; by W[illiam] Bulmer and Co., […], published 1813, →OCLC, Act III, scene [iii], page 237:
      In one word then, unless I could unfold the mystery, I will not wish you to consider me but as the last and lowest of mankind.
    • 1899, Richard Savage, The White Lady of Khaminavatka: A Story of the Ukraine, page 186:
      The whole community from the patrician master to the last beggar knew that in the five months when the generous bosom of the steppe throbbed with creative life, they must toil for the subsistence of all […]
    • 1970, Julius Fast, Body Language, →ISBN, page 39:
      Lesser, but still important executives had offices without corner windows. The rank below this had offices without windows at all. […] The last rank had desks out in an open room.
    • 2003 March 31, Marko Peljhan, “Lecture: March 31, 2003”, in Jen Budney, Adrian Blackwell, editors, Unboxed Engagements in Social Space, published 2005, →ISBN, page 110:
      Russia is a very different place than here. […] Even the last soldier knows who Malevich was, and what the Black Square is, since they were taught this in school.
Synonyms
[edit]
Derived terms
[edit]
Translations
[edit]