finally

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

• (Received Pronunciation, US) IPA^(key): /ˈfaɪ.nə.li/, /ˈfaɪn.li/

  • Audio (UK):

    (file)

  • Audio (US):

    (file)

• Homophone: finely (some US dialects)
• Rhymes: (Received Pronunciation) -aɪnəli

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.

• and finally