finally

adv

Etymology: From Middle English finally, fynaly, fynally, fynaliche, fynalliche, equivalent to final + -ly.

1. At the end or conclusion; ultimately.

   “The contest was long, but the Romans finally conquered.”

2. At bottom; ultimately; when all is considered.

   “In a world in which "like singing,/ the next day's shriek for ease rises," in a world whose "survivors" are "capable of any cry, never done/ clasping in the city's shaken places," it is perhaps not surprising to find a dehumanizing but finally protective system of alienation imposing itself.”

   “Cyberneticism is, finally, a refined form of scientism, and therefore it is also more dangerous. This form of scientism is not based on linear causality, as mechanistic thought is; rather, it is based on circular causality.”

3. To finish (with); lastly (in the present).

   “Finally, I washed my dog.”

   “Finally, I'd like to thanks all the people who helped to make it this far.”

4. Definitively, comprehensively.

   “The question of his long-term success has now been finally settled.”