finale
Americannoun
-
finales
plural
-
the last piece, division, or movement of a concert, opera, or composition.
-
the concluding part of any performance, course of proceedings, etc.; end.
noun
-
the concluding part of any performance or presentation
-
the closing section or movement of a musical composition
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of finale
1715–25; < Italian, noun use of finale (adj.) < Latin fīnālis final
Explanation
If you decide to leave the theater early to beat traffic, you’ll miss the finale — the exciting final part of a theatrical performance. Perhaps to ensure that audience members stay until the end, many musical and theatrical pieces end with an elaborate flourish known as the finale. (If it’s truly spectacular, it might even be called a “grand finale.”) Appropriately, the pronunciation of finale contains a final flourish that you just can’t miss: the letter e, which you might expect to be silent, is pronounced. The last two syllables of finale rhyme with alley.
Vocabulary lists containing finale
"Diary of a Wimpy Kid" by Jeff Kinney
Looking to grow your vocabulary? Check out this interactive, curated word list from our team of English language specialists at Vocabulary.com – one of over 17,000 lists we've built to help learners worldwide!
Theater - Introductory
Interested in learning more words like this one? Our team at Vocabulary.com has got you covered! You can review flashcards, quiz yourself, practice spelling, and more – and it's all completely free to use!
Theater - Middle School
Want to remember this word for good? Start your learning journey today with our library of interactive, themed word lists built by the experts at Vocabulary.com – we'll help you make the most of your study time!
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Two weeks later, the Season 2 finale of Mudcats aired on National Geographic TV.
From Slate ● Sep. 17, 2026
Die-hard fans of “The Bachelor” are known for their relentless online sleuthing in search of clues about who will be chosen in the season finale.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 16, 2026
Trump delivers Wednesday's keynote and returns for Thursday's finale after Vice President JD Vance speaks.
From Barron's ● Sep. 9, 2026
The break was caught with around 23km remaining, setting up the bunch sprint finale.
From BBC ● Sep. 8, 2026
“That’s the finale, right? You guys have a show?”
From "Sparrow" by Sarah Moon
No matter the strengths of AI, a chatbot cannot dream up stories with flawed characters and themes and arcs and failures and triumphs—with ambiguous finales.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 13, 2026
But the ones I found most interesting were finales I don’t remember encountering in Baseball Digest.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 22, 2026
Long before CBS announced it was pulling the plug on “The Late Show,” its host Stephen Colbert had already laid claim to helming one of late-night’s greatest finales.
From Salon ● May 21, 2026
The program consisted of five short finales and looked, on paper, as the least imaginative gala in at least the last three decades.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 17, 2025
Cora had not seen him since the first night, but she had heard every speech of the Friday-night finales.
From "The Underground Railroad: A Novel" by Colson Whitehead
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
