from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
- n. The condition or fact of being final.
- n. A final, conclusive, or decisive act or utterance.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
- n. The state of "being final"; the condition from which no further changes occur
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English
- n. The state of being final, finished, or complete; a final or conclusive arrangement; a settlement.
- n. The relation of end or purpose to its means.
from The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. The quality or state of being final; the state of being settled or finally arranged; completion; conclusion.
- n. In philosophy, the doctrine that nothing exists or was made except for a determinate end; the doctrine of final causes.
- n. That which is final or last; a final act or result; an absolute conclusion or determination: as, to reach a finality in a negotiation; this offer is a finality.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- n. the quality of being final or definitely settled
Sorry, no etymologies found.
No doubt there will be many more changes in the future, for finality is not in the language of politics.
The meaning itself of the word finality has undergone singular changes since Aristotle and the thirteenth century.
Peel no more meant to convey any idea of this kind than did Lord John Russell, when he used the word finality in connection with the Reform Act, mean to convey the idea that, according to his conviction, Parliament was never again to be invited to extend the electoral franchise or to modify the conditions under which the votes of the electors were to be given.
These are areas in which such vocabularies truly are contingent, and unpacking our presuppositions about their finality is a useful practice.
It is therefore obligatory to the extent to which, and for as long as, it is shown to accomplish its proper finality, which is the hydration and nourishment of the patient.
This third relation may be call finality; [Footnote: The explanation of this is obscure; there is no unanimity among the specialists in musical theory.] it belongs among relations we have called evolutionary.
Others have broken entirely with selection and the principle of utility and extend the idea of finality to the general capacity of organisms to persist.
Christianity has taken through the centuries have grown out of enduring experiences and needs never to be outgrown, and that their finality is the finality of the deep things of the soul itself.
Such is the notion of finality which has long been classic.
Well, good-afternoon, "she said, smilingly waiving the idea of finality;" you shall know to-morrow where you can meet me.