Meaning & use

11th hour

phrase·Academic

The very last possible moment before a deadline or before it becomes too late to act.

See it in a sentence

The team fixed the critical bug at the 11th hour, just before the product launch.

Investors backed out at the 11th hour, leaving the whole deal in jeopardy.

A note on using this word

Also spelled 'eleventh hour'; the idiom refers to a biblical parable about workers hired late in the day.

Words with a similar meaning

last minute

Choose a synonym to suit the sentence. Meanings can overlap without being identical.

Make it your own

Write a sentence using “11th hour”, then compare your use with the examples above.

Your draft stays on this page and is not sent anywhere.