finality

Meanings

1. 1noununcountable

   The feeling or fact that something is ended or decided and cannot be changed.

   Grammar: Uncountable and often with an or the in the phrase with finality: she spoke with finality.

   Patterns

   • with finality
   • the finality of something

   The door closed with a sound of finality.

   She spoke with such finality that nobody argued.

   The finality of the decision hit him later.

2. 2noununcountablelegal

   The state of being the last of a series, or of being complete.

   Grammar: Used mainly in legal or formal writing about decisions.

   Patterns

   • finality of a judgment

   The court stressed the finality of its judgment.

   Contracts need a certain finality to be useful.

   Lawyers argue about the finality of settlements.

Common combinations

with finality

He closed the book with finality.

a sense of finality

There was a sense of finality about the goodbye.

the finality of death

She struggled with the finality of death.

an air of finality

Her words had an air of finality.

the finality of the decision

We accept the finality of the decision.

Synonyms and how they differ

conclusiveness

Conclusiveness is about evidence being enough to settle something, while finality is about no further change being possible.

permanence

Permanence means lasting a long time, not necessarily that it was decided and closed.

irrevocability

Irrevocability is a more technical word for something that cannot be undone, usually in law.

certainty

Certainty is about being sure, and does not imply the matter is closed.

Opposites

Word family

final adjective

last, or not able to be changed

finally adverb

at last

finalize verb

to complete and settle

finalist noun

a person in the last round of a contest

Commonly confused: finality or finally?

Practice

Make it your own

Write a sentence using “finality”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.

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