latter

See also: łatter

English

Etymology

From Middle English latter, lattere, lattre, from Old English lætra, comparative form of læt (“late”). Equivalent to late +‎ -er, thus a doublet of later; also, related to last, whose doublet is latest.

Pronunciation

• (non-rhotic) enPR: lăt'ə(r), IPA^(key): /ˈlæt.ə(ɹ)/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈlæt.ɚ/, [ˈlæɾ.ɚ]

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Homophone: ladder (in accents with flapping)
• Rhymes: -ætə(ɹ)

Adjective

latter (not comparable)

1. Near (or nearer) to the end.

   the latter part of the century

2. In the past, but close (or closer) to the present time.

   Synonym: later

   In his latter years my dad became very absent-minded.

   • 1689 (indicated as 1690), [John Locke], An Essay Concerning Humane Understanding. […], London: […] Eliz[abeth] Holt, for Thomas Basset, […], →OCLC:

     Hath not navigation discovered in these latter ages, whole nations at the bay of Soldania […] ?

Noun

latter (singular only)

2. (preceding with "the") The second of aforementioned two items.

   The archaic past participle shapen is only used in misshapen, ill-shapen, and well-shapen (the latter two are much less common, though).

   • 1725, Isaac Watts, Logick: Or, The Right Use of Reason in the Enquiry after Truth, […], 2nd edition, London: […] John Clark and Richard Hett, […], Emanuel Matthews, […], and Richard Ford, […], published 1726, →OCLC:

     the difference between reason and revelation, and in what sense the latter is superior

   • 2017 March, Jennifer S. Holland, “For These Monkeys, It’s a Fight for Survival.”, in National Geographic‎^[1], archived from the original on 23 March 2025:

     On sale next to dried fish and chicken feet were rats and bats (the latter's wings in a pile like leather scraps, also for sale), plus cut-up pigs and monkeys, their faces intact.

   • 2019 July 5, Michael Bartiromo, “Gordon Ramsay and Lil Nas X meet up to make panini sandwiches, play with knives”, in Fox News‎^[2], archived from the original on 5 August 2019:

     Ramsay and Lil Nas X’s panini party comes less than two weeks after the latter had jokingly asked the “Masterchef” star to make a guest appearance on the remix of his latest single, “Panini.”

Translations

relating to or being the second of two items — see also second,‎ last

• Bulgarian: на второ място (na vtoro mjasto)
• Catalan: segon (ca), ponent (ca)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 後者 / 后者 (zh) (hòuzhě)

• Dutch: laatstgenoemd (nl)
• Esperanto: lasta (eo), ĉi-lasta
• Faroese: seinni
• Finnish: jälkimmäinen (fi), jäljempi
• French: ce dernier (literally “the latter”)
• German: letzterer (de), zweiter (de)
• Hungarian: utóbbi (hu), második (hu)
• Italian: secondo (it), quest'ultimo
• Japanese: 後者 (ja) (こうしゃ, kōsha)
• Korean: 후자 (ko) (huja)
• Norn: ettri
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: sistnevnt

  Nynorsk: sistnemnd

• Occitan: aiceste, este, aqueste (oc)
• Persian: دومی (fa) (dovvomi)
• Polish: drugi (pl) (z dwóch)
• Portuguese: segundo (pt), último (pt), este (pt)
• Russian: второ́й (ru) (vtorój)
• Spanish: (el) segundo, pronouns: éste (es) m, esto (es) n; (este) último
• Swedish: sistnämnda (sv), andra (sv), senare (sv)
• Vietnamese: sau (vi), thứ hai (vi), thứ nhì

near (or nearer) to the end — see also last

• Dutch: laatste (nl)
• Finnish: jäljempi
• French: ce dernier (literally “the latter”)
• German: letztere (de)
• Hungarian: későbbi (hu), hátrébb lévő
• Māori: mātāmuri
• Norwegian: sist (no)
• Polish: późniejszy, końcowy (pl), ostatni (pl) m
• Russian: после́дний (ru) (poslédnij)
• Vietnamese: sau cùng (vi)

close (or closer) to the present time — see also last

• Bulgarian: неотдавнашен (bg) (neotdavnašen)
• Dutch: jongstleden (nl), dichtsbijzijnde
• Finnish: myöhempi (fi)
• French: dernier (fr)
• German: letzter (de)
• Hungarian: utóbbi (hu), újabb (hu)
• Polish: ostatni (pl)
• Russian: после́дний (ru) (poslédnij), бо́лее по́здний (bóleje pózdnij)
• Vietnamese: gần đây (vi), mới đây (vi)

Antonyms

• former

Derived terms

• at latter Lammas
• latter end
• lattermost
• latterness

Related terms

• last (the superlative form of “latter”)
• latter-day
• latterly
• lattermath

Anagrams

• Tatler, rattle

Danish

Etymology

From Old Norse hlátr, from Proto-Germanic *hlahtraz (“laughter”). Cognate with Norwegian lått, English laughter and German Gelächter. Derived from the verb *hlahjaną (“to laugh”), cf. Danish le, English laugh, German lachen.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ˈlad̥ɐ]

Noun

latter c (singular definite latteren, not used in plural form)

1. laughter

Declension

Declension of latter

common gender	singular
	indefinite	definite
nominative	latter	latteren
genitive	latters	latterens

References

• “latter” in Den Danske Ordbog
• “latter” in Ordbog over det danske Sprog

French

Pronunciation

• Audio (France (Lyon)):

  (file)

• Audio (France (Somain)):

  (file)

Verb

latter

1. to lath

Conjugation

Conjugation of latter (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	latter
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	lattant /la.tɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		latté /la.te/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	latte /lat/	lattes /lat/	latte /lat/	lattons /la.tɔ̃/	lattez /la.te/	lattent /lat/
	imperfect	lattais /la.tɛ/	lattais /la.tɛ/	lattait /la.tɛ/	lattions /la.tjɔ̃/	lattiez /la.tje/	lattaient /la.tɛ/
	past historic2	lattai /la.te/	lattas /la.ta/	latta /la.ta/	lattâmes /la.tam/	lattâtes /la.tat/	lattèrent /la.tɛʁ/
	future	latterai /la.tʁe/	latteras /la.tʁa/	lattera /la.tʁa/	latterons /la.tʁɔ̃/	latterez /la.tʁe/	latteront /la.tʁɔ̃/
	conditional	latterais /la.tʁɛ/	latterais /la.tʁɛ/	latterait /la.tʁɛ/	latterions /la.tə.ʁjɔ̃/	latteriez /la.tə.ʁje/	latteraient /la.tʁɛ/
(compound tenses)	present perfect	present indicative of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect	imperfect indicative of avoir + past participle
	past anterior2	past historic of avoir + past participle
	future perfect	future of avoir + past participle
	conditional perfect	conditional of avoir + past participle
subjunctive		que je (j’)	que tu	qu’il, qu’elle	que nous	que vous	qu’ils, qu’elles
(simple tenses)	present	latte /lat/	lattes /lat/	latte /lat/	lattions /la.tjɔ̃/	lattiez /la.tje/	lattent /lat/
	imperfect2	lattasse /la.tas/	lattasses /la.tas/	lattât /la.ta/	lattassions /la.ta.sjɔ̃/	lattassiez /la.ta.sje/	lattassent /la.tas/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	latte /lat/	—	lattons /la.tɔ̃/	lattez /la.te/	—
compound		—	simple imperative of avoir + past participle	—	simple imperative of avoir + past participle	simple imperative of avoir + past participle	—
1 The French gerund is usable only with the preposition en.
2 In less formal writing or speech, these tenses may be found to have been replaced in the following way: past historic → present perfect past anterior → pluperfect imperfect subjunctive → present subjunctive pluperfect subjunctive → past subjunctive (Christopher Kendris [1995], Master the Basics: French, pp. 77, 78, 79, 81).

Further reading

• “latter”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012

Norman

Etymology

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Verb

latter

1. (Jersey) to beat, spank, cane

Synonyms

• (to cane): codrer, donner la tchêne, vrédîndgi, vrier

Norwegian Bokmål

Etymology

From Old Norse hlátr.

Noun

latter m (definite singular latteren) (uncountable)

1. laughter
2. laugh

   en god latter ― a good laugh

Synonyms

• lått (Nynorsk also)

Derived terms

• latterlig
• lattermild
• lættis

References

• “latter” in The Bokmål Dictionary.