finally
/ˈfaɪ.nə.li/adverb
finally is spelled F-I-N-A-L-L-Y. The wrong spelling people search most is finaly: about 330 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 11 of all searches for the word. Finally is an adverb meaning “At the end or conclusion; ultimately”.
How many letters and syllables are in finally?
| Letters | 7: F-I-N-A-L-L-Y |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 3 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 148 times per million words; the 697th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 3; the most searched, finaly, about 330 Bing searches a month (all of them) |
| Pairs people search |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026).
How do you spell finally?
Finally is spelled F-I-N-A-L-L-Y. 3 wrong spellings are searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 10 of the searches for finally in either form.
Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.
How common is finally?
Finally appears 148 times per million words in written English, the 697th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce finally?
- US /ˈfaɪ.nə.li/
- US /ˈfaɪn.li/
- Australia /ˈfɑɪ.nə.li/
Finally has 3 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Back_ache-finally.wav, En-us-finally.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Words people confuse with finally
Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).
Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).
What does finally mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
adverb
- 1
At the end or conclusion; ultimately.
The contest was long, but the Romans finally conquered.
- 2
At bottom; ultimately; when all is considered.
- 3
To finish (with); lastly (in the present).
Finally, I washed my dog.
- 4
Definitively, comprehensively.
The question of his long-term success has now been finally settled.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Finally in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | enfin , définitivement |
| German | schließlich , definitiv , endlich |
| Portuguese | no fim/final, por fim, enfim , finalmente , por último |
| Spanish | por fin, finalmente , al fin |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does finally come from?
From Middle English finally, fynaly, fynally, fynaliche, fynalliche, equivalent to final + -ly.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).