Latest
adjectiveMost recent or newest; coming after all others up to now.
How to spell latest
6 letters · 2 syllables
How to pronounce latest
Say the part in capitals loudest.
What does latest mean?
- adjectiveMost recent or newest; coming after all others up to now.
- adverbThe most delayed acceptable point in time, usually in the phrase 'at the latest'.
Latest in a sentence
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adjective
The latest version of the software fixes several security flaws.
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adverb
The report must reach the office by Friday at the latest.
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adjective
She always wants to read the latest news before breakfast.
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adverb
Guests should arrive by seven at the latest for the dinner.
Where does latest come from?
Language of origin: Germanic
The word is the superlative form of 'late', which descends from the Old English adjective 'læt', meaning 'slow', 'tardy', or 'sluggish'. That word belonged to a wider Germanic family, sharing roots with the Dutch 'laat' and the German 'lass', all carrying a sense of slackness or delay. Over the centuries the meaning of 'late' shifted from describing a slow person to describing something happening after the expected time, and from there to something occurring near the end of a period. The superlative 'latest', built simply by adding '-est', came to mean 'most recent' or 'newest', since the thing that arrived most recently is the one that came latest in time. The same '-est' ending that turns 'late' into 'latest' also stays regular and unsurprising in spelling, which is why this word rarely trips up adult writers.
How the word is built
- late (Old English læt: slow, tardy)
- -est (superlative suffix)
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