final girl

noun

plural final girls

: the protagonist of a slasher horror movie or novel who is typically a young woman, who is the last of the serial killer's intended victims to survive or remain, and who ultimately confronts the killer

The "final girl" is a trope familiar to film scholars and horror-movie fans. She's the young woman who makes it out of the slasher flick alive, the one who lives to tell the tale.

—Kirkus Reviews

Word History

First Known Use

1987, in the meaning defined above