finish
/ˈfɪnɪʃ/
"finish" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“finish” is a regularly-used English word, ranked #1,305 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #1,305
- frequency rank, English
- 6
- letters
- 8
- tracked misspellings
- 14
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - An end; the end of anything.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | finish |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈfɪnɪʃ/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #1,305 |
| Misspellings tracked | 8 |
| Confusable pairs | 14 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “finish” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for finish is 6 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈfɪnɪʃ/. Corpus data places it at rank #1,305 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. Wiktionary records 6 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 8 likely wrong-spelling variants for finish, with forms such as "ffinish", "fiinsh", and "finihs". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 14 confusable-pair relationships, "fish", "fins", "Finns", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: 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 fr… The correct English form is finish, spelled F-I-N-I-S-H.
Definition
- 1An end; the end of anything.
- 2A protective coating given to wood or metal and other surfaces.
- 3The result of any process changing the physical or chemical properties of cloth.
- 4A finishing touch; careful elaboration; polish.
- 5A shot on goal, especially one that ends in a goal.
- 6The ending of a match and its structure.
Etymology
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”).
Synonyms
Antonyms
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: ffinish,fiinsh,finihs,finishh,finissh,finsih,fniish,ifnish
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of finish - measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Using “finish”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is F-I-N-I-S-H - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈfɪnɪʃ/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “fish” - see the side-by-side comparison. finish vs fish
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.