Finished

How to spell finished

8 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce finished

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does finished mean?

1. adjectiveBrought to an end or completed; no longer ongoing.
2. verbPast tense of finish: brought a task or activity to completion.

Finished in a sentence

• adjective

  The report was completely finished by the deadline.

• verb

  She finished her coffee before the meeting started.

• adjective

  Once the painting was finished, she hung it in the hallway.

• verb

  They finished the marathon in under four hours.

Where does finished come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin noun finis, which meant 'end', 'limit', or 'boundary'. From finis came the verb finire, meaning 'to bring to an end', and that passed into Old French as fenir or finir. English borrowed the verb in the 1300s as 'finish', keeping the sense of completing or concluding something. The past form 'finished' simply adds the regular -ed ending, though many writers pause over the spelling because the -ish base already ends in a consonant cluster. The same finis root underlies a whole family of English words, including 'final', 'finite', 'definite', and even 'fine', which once meant a payment that settled or ended a dispute.

How the word is built

• fin (from Latin finis: end, boundary)
• -ish (verb-forming suffix)
• -ed (past tense/participle suffix)