Wiktionary

finally

English

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Etymology

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From Middle English finally, fynaly, fynally, fynaliche, fynalliche, equivalent to final +‎ -ly.

Pronunciation

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Adverb

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finally (not comparable)

  1. At the end or conclusion; ultimately.
    Synonyms: eventually, in the end; see also Thesaurus:finally
    Antonym: initially
    The contest was long, but the Romans finally conquered.
  2. At bottom; ultimately; when all is considered.
    • 1975 December 20, Rudy Kikel, “The Closed Closet Policy and the Poetry of Paul Monette”, in Gay Community News, volume 3, number 25, page 9:
      In a world in which "like singing,/ the next day's shriek for ease rises," in a world whose "survivors" are "capable of any cry, never done/ clasping in the city's shaken places," it is perhaps not surprising to find a dehumanizing but finally protective system of alienation imposing itself.
    • 2024, Egbert Schuurman, Ruben Alvarado, Technology and Christianity: Essays on the Interface, page 113:
      Cyberneticism is, finally, a refined form of scientism, and therefore it is also more dangerous. This form of scientism is not based on linear causality, as mechanistic thought is; rather, it is based on circular causality.
  3. (sequence) To finish (with); lastly (in the present).
    Synonyms: at last, at length, endly; see also Thesaurus:lastly
    Finally, I washed my dog.
    • 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter II, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC:
      I had occasion […] to make a somewhat long business trip to Chicago, and on my return […] I found Farrar awaiting me in the railway station. He smiled his wonted fraction by way of greeting, […], and finally leading me to his buggy, turned and drove out of town.
    • 1967, Barbara Sleigh, Jessamy, Sevenoaks, Kent: Bloomsbury, published 1993, →ISBN, page 122:
      At any other time Jessamy would have laughed at the expressions that chased each other over his freckled face: crossness left over from his struggle with the baby; incredulity; distress; and finally delight.
    • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:finally.
  4. (manner) Definitively, comprehensively.
    Synonyms: completely, thoroughly, totally; see also Thesaurus:completely
    The question of his long-term success has now been finally settled.

Derived terms

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Translations

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