Finals

How to spell finals

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce finals

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does finals mean?

1. nounThe concluding examinations taken at the end of a course or degree.
2. nounThe concluding rounds or matches of a tournament that decide the overall winner.

Finals in a sentence

• She spent the whole weekend revising for her finals.

• The team reached the finals for the first time in a decade.

• The library stays open late during finals week.

• Tickets for the finals sold out within minutes.

Where does finals come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin finis, which literally meant 'end', 'limit', or 'boundary marker', the very stone that marked where one field stopped and another began. From finis the Romans formed finalis, meaning 'concerning the end' or 'coming last', and this passed into English through Old French as 'final' during the 1300s. The plural noun 'finals' is a later, more practical development: by the nineteenth century British universities were using it for the concluding set of examinations, the tests that come at the very end of a degree. The same finis root sits inside 'finish', 'finite', and even 'finance', which once meant settling or ending a debt. Remember that the spelling keeps a single 'l' before the plural '-s', so it is finals, never finalls.

How the word is built

• fin- (from Latin finis: end, boundary)
• -al (adjective/noun suffix)
• -s (plural)