Finishes

How to spell finishes

8 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce finishes

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does finishes mean?

1. verbBrings an activity or task to an end; completes something (third person singular).
2. nounThe final surface coatings or textures applied to a manufactured or built object (plural).

Finishes in a sentence

• verb

  She finishes her shift at six and drives straight home.

• noun

  The showroom offers several wood finishes for the new kitchen cabinets.

• verb

  The contractor always finishes one room before starting the next.

• noun

  Matte and gloss finishes reflect light very differently on the same paint.

Where does finishes come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The base word finish comes ultimately from the Latin verb finire, meaning 'to bring to an end' or 'to limit', which was built on the noun finis, meaning 'an end' or 'a boundary'. English took it through Old French, where finir had a present-participle and conjugation stem finiss-, and that doubled-s stem is exactly why the English word kept its -ish ending. It entered English in the 1300s, first meaning simply 'to bring something to completion'. Over time the noun sense developed to describe the final surface or coating applied to a finished object, such as the gloss on furniture or paint, since that is the last stage of the work. The same Latin finis still lives openly in everyday relatives like 'final', 'finite', and 'define', which all share the idea of an ending or a limit. The plural and verb form 'finishes' simply adds the regular -es because the word already ends in the s-like 'sh' sound.

How the word is built

• fin- (from Latin finis: end)
• -ish (verb-forming, via Old French)
• -es (third-person singular / plural inflection)