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I've been looking for the word denoting something taking place for the latest time in an indefinitely large series, for example, the solar eclipse occurring for the______ th(?) time from the beginning of the World.

Being aware of the words "umpteenth" and "umptieth", both meaning coming after all others in an indefinitely numerous series, I'm not sure they perfectly match the idea of repetition of the event for only god knows what time. Asking this, I bear in mind that suffixes "-teenth" and "-ties" in ordinal numerals are used to form those either from 13 to 19 or tens from 20 to 90. So is there a single word/common expression to comply with my request?

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    gazillionth? :-)
    – Karolini
    Jun 18, 2018 at 12:20
  • @Karolini - A good one for an infinite number, but I mean something that might be technically counted, at least very approximately--tens of hundreds or thousands, maybe millions...
    – Victor B.
    Jun 18, 2018 at 12:36
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    Well, then maybe nth.
    – Karolini
    Jun 18, 2018 at 12:50
  • @Karolini Why not post your answer?
    – Victor B.
    Jun 18, 2018 at 12:53
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    Do you have a word in your own native language which means the-most-recent-in-an-ongoing-series-of-indeterminate-length?
    – TimR
    Jun 18, 2018 at 18:37

3 Answers 3

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We use nth to mean an unspecified position in a sequence. For example:

  • the nth element in a list
  • It's the nth time I've explained it to you.
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    Although nth is suitable, I'm not sure that it works as well with spoken language as it does with written language. I think umpteenth or gazillionth might work better.
    – EllieK
    Jun 18, 2018 at 13:35
  • According to the dictionaries I've looked up the suggested"nth" in, so far it seems to be the word I've been looking for. I'll wait a bit for other possible suggestions, and unless there appears something more helpful, I'll gladly accept your answer. Thanks a lot.
    – Victor B.
    Jun 18, 2018 at 14:00
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    You should really add a dictionary definition for this to your answer. It would indicate that you have objective evidence for your claim, and that it's actually recognized as a word.
    – Jason Bassford
    Jun 18, 2018 at 15:58
  • @Rompey: nth is not the word you've described. I'm with EllieK on this.
    – TimR
    Jun 18, 2018 at 19:30
  • @Tᴚoɯɐuo All the answers and comments taken into account, to me my problem seems to have been solved. My special thanks to Elliek.
    – Victor B.
    Jun 18, 2018 at 20:15
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As suggested by @EllieK in a comment, umpteenth is a legitimate word, which means essentially the same thing:

very many : indefinitely numerous

Hundreds of companies create data about people on the internet from Google to umpteen obscure little companies.

"Umpteen" usually describes an indefinite and large number or amount, while the related "umpteenth" is used for the latest or last in an indefinitely numerous series.

Origin and Etymology of umpteen
blend of umpty (such and such) and -teen (as in thirteen)

When discussing writing, Google Ngram Viewer shows that nth is more common than umpteen, but I suspect that umpteen is more common in informal speech. (If I heard somebody say nth in a bar, I'd stare at them oddly; if I heard them say umpteenth, I might grin but I wouldn't find it strange.) So, it would depend on context which to use.

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The word you're looking for is latest (you cannot mean last as you say in your title, if the series is of indeterminate length).

Latest implies that there have been more than one to date, and that there will probably be others to follow.

In his latest tweet, ...

This latest eruption was orders of magnitude more powerful than those preceding it.

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