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PlainSpell

finish

/ˈfɪnɪʃ/noun, verb

finish is spelled F-I-N-I-S-H: 6 letters and 2 syllables. It appears 81 times per million words in written English, the 1,302nd most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, finish means “An end; the end of anything” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of finish is finishes.

How many letters and syllables are in finish?

Letters6: F-I-N-I-S-H
Syllables2 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing81 times per million words; the 1,302nd most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search
Sounds like

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).

How common is finish?

Finish appears 81 times per million words in written English, the 1,302nd 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 finish?

  • /ˈfɪnɪʃ/

Finish has 2 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: En-uk-finnish.ogg, En-uk-to_finish.ogg, En-us-finish.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Words people confuse with finish

Sounds like: Finnish (Wiktionary's homophone list; some hold only in some accents).

Sources: English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).

Forms of finish

  • finishes plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • finishing participle, present
  • finished participle, past, singular, he/she/it, plural

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does finish mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

noun

  1. 1

    An end; the end of anything.

  2. 2

    A protective coating given to wood or metal and other surfaces.

    The car's finish was so shiny and new.

  3. 3

    The result of any process changing the physical or chemical properties of cloth.

  4. 4

    A finishing touch; careful elaboration; polish.

  5. 5

    A shot on goal, especially one that ends in a goal.

  6. 6

    slangThe ending of a match and its structure.

  7. 7

    The stoppage or conclusion of a bout before the scheduled rounds expire, resulting in an immediate victory via knockout (KO), technical knockout (TKO), or submission.

    Oliveira holds multiple UFC records, notably the most submission wins in the organization's history at 17, most finishes at 21 and most bonuses at 21.

verb

  1. 1

    To complete (something).

    Be sure to finish your homework before you go to bed!

  2. 2

    To apply a treatment to (a surface or similar).

    The furniture was finished in teak veneer.

  3. 3

    To change an animal's food supply in the months before it is due for slaughter, with the intention of fattening the animal.

    Due to BSE, cows in the United Kingdom must be finished and slaughtered before 30 months of age.

  4. 4

    To come to an end.

    We had to leave before the concert had finished.

  5. 5

    To put an end to; to destroy.

    These rumours could finish your career.

  6. 6

    To reach orgasm.

  7. 7

    To stop an opponent and end a bout prematurely before the scheduled time limit expires, securing an immediate victory via knockout, technical knockout, or submission.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

How do you abbreviate finish?

Wiktionary records one abbreviation of finish: fin..

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Finish in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchfin (end), fini (protective coating), finir, achever (to complete), se terminer (to come to an end)
GermanEnde (end), Lack (protective coating), beenden (to complete), enden, aufhören (to come to an end), fertigstellen (to apply a final treatment to)
Portuguesefim, final (end), acabamento (protective coating), acabar, finalizar, concluir (to complete)
Spanishmeta, fin (end), acabado (protective coating), acabar, fenecer, finir (to complete)

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 finish come from?

From Middle English finishen, finisshen, finischen, from Old French finiss-, stem of some of the conjugated forms of finir, from Latin fīnīre, from fīnis (“end, limit, border, boundary”), possibly from Proto-Indo-European *dʰeygʷ- (“to stick, set up”) or from Proto-Indo-European *bʰeyd- (“to split”).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What to look up after finish