finale
Americannoun
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the last piece, division, or movement of a concert, opera, or composition.
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the concluding part of any performance, course of proceedings, etc.; end.
noun
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the concluding part of any performance or presentation
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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
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Theater - Introductory
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Theater - Middle School
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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.
To celebrate, last night May and fellow band member Roger Taylor took to the stage with the BBC Symphony Orchestra for the Last Night of the Proms Finale.
From BBC • Sep. 14, 2025
Hugh Bonneville and Michelle Dockery reflect on their father-daughter roles in ‘Downton Abbey,’ the end of an era and honoring Maggie Smith’s legacy in ‘The Grand Finale.’
From Los Angeles Times • Sep. 12, 2025
Gavin & Stacey: The Making of the Finale, a 26-minute documentary, is available on the iPlayer now.
From BBC • Dec. 23, 2024
If you’re unfamiliar with Finale, you may have trouble understanding why a program for placing musical notes on staffs has enflamed such passions.
From Slate • Sep. 26, 2024
In more modern literature there is the fugal Finale to Arthur Foote's Suite for Orchestra and in Chadwick's Vagrom Ballad a humorous quotation of the theme from Bach's G minor Fugue for organ.
From Music: An Art and a Language by Spalding, Walter Raymond
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.
