Word.ws English Dictionary

last minute

last minute noun: an arbitrary (non-specific) point in time, too close to a deadline to reasonably begin a critical task.

Noun

the last minute

  1. (idiomatic) An arbitrary (non-specific) point in time, too close to a deadline to reasonably begin a critical task.
    • I like to do everything at the last minute. It does tend to make me late for things, though.
    • “Clown Without Pity,” as the segment is called, opens with Homer forgetting Bart’s birthday and jetting off at the last minute (or rather considerably after the last minute) to pick him up a present. Alas, Homer has the questionable judgment to go gift-shopping at House Of Evil, an establishment...2012 April 29, Nathan Rabin, “TV: Review: THE SIMPSONS (CLASSIC): “Treehouse of Horror III” (season 4, episode 5; originally aired 10/29/1992)”, in AV Club, archived from the original on 08 Mar 2013

Adjective

last minute (comparative more last minute, superlative most last minute)

  1. (idiomatic) Very close to a deadline.
    • That last minute revision really paid off in the exam!
    • “In ten years, this is the most last-minute holiday season that we have ever seen,” a Citigroup analyst, Deborah Weinswig, tells ABC News.2009, Hank Stuever, Tinsel: A Search for America's Christmas Present, page 211

last minute meaning in Bengali

last minute in Bengali

সময়ের একটি খামখেয়ালি বিন্দু, সময়সীমার খুব কাছাকাছি

Examples of last minute in a sentence

  • “Clown Without Pity,” as the segment is called, opens with Homer forgetting Bart’s birthday and jetting off at the last minute (or rather considerably after the last minute) to pick him up a present.2012 April 29, Nathan Rabin, “TV: Review: THE SIMPSONS (CLASSIC): “Treehouse of Horror III” (season 4, episode 5; originally aired...
  • “I preferred it when it was more last minute, when the adrenaline kicked in.”2020 August 15, Gavin Newsham, “How the Secret Service protects the president’s golf game”, in New York Post, archived from the original on...

Forms of last minute

comparativemore last minute
superlativemost last minute

Words formed from last minute

Questions about last minute

What does last minute mean?
Last minute means an arbitrary (non-specific) point in time, too close to a deadline to reasonably begin a critical task.
What is last minute in Bengali?
Last minute in Bengali is সময়ের একটি খামখেয়ালি বিন্দু, সময়সীমার খুব কাছাকাছি. See Last minute meaning in Bengali.
How do you use last minute in a sentence?
“Clown Without Pity,” as the segment is called, opens with Homer forgetting Bart’s birthday and jetting off at the last minute (or rather considerably after the last minute) to pick him up a present.
What part of speech is last minute?
Last minute can be a noun or an adjective.

Words near last minute in the dictionary

  1. last men standing
  2. Last Messenger
  3. last mile
  4. last mile school
  5. last miles
  6. last minute
  7. last moment
  8. last nail in the coffin
  9. last name
  10. last names
  11. last night

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: last minute (page history and authors); last minute (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-last minute.ogg.

Cite this entry: “last minute.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/last_minute. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.