Fin

How to spell fin

3 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce fin

What does fin mean?

1. nounA thin, flat projecting part used by a fish, swimmer, vehicle, or aircraft to steer or stabilise.

Fin in a sentence

• The shark's dorsal fin cut through the surface of the water.

• Each diver pulled a rubber fin onto one foot before entering the sea.

Where does fin come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

Fin is a genuinely old native English word, descending from the Old English finn, which already meant the thin projecting blade a fish uses to swim. It belongs to the wider Germanic family, with relatives such as the Dutch vin and a Latin cousin pinna, meaning a feather, wing, or fin, all pointing back to an ancient root for something flat and projecting. For most of its life the word stayed firmly attached to fish, but as engineering advanced it was borrowed for any similar flat blade: the stabilising fin of an aircraft, the tail fin of a 1950s car, and the rubber fin a diver straps to each foot. The spelling has barely changed in over a thousand years, simply shedding one of its doubled letters, which is why it is one of the most regular and trap-free words in English.

How the word is built

• fin (single root, from Old English finn: a fish's fin)

Words that sound like fin

They sound the same but mean different things, so the meaning decides which spelling to write.

• finn: A native or inhabitant of Finland.