the last/final word

noun

1

: the final thing said in an argument or a discussion

Your mother's decision is the final word on the matter.

Why do you always have to have the last word?

2

: the power to make a final decision

The judge will have the last word on the divorce agreement.

3

informal : the most modern or best one of its kind

This is the last word in wireless phones.

The van's design is the last word in safety.

Examples of the last/final word in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

The emergency orders by the court are not the last word on cases but can resolve as a practical matter for years while lawsuits wind through the courts. —Karen Yourish, New York Times, 22 Aug. 2025

Photograph: Mark Sommerfeld Last year, filmmaker Paul Schrader—the director of Blue Collar, American Gigolo, and First Reformed, and writer of Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driver—issued what seemed like the last word on artificial intelligence in Hollywood filmmaking. —John Semley, Wired News, 20 Aug. 2025

According to clinical psychologist Nick Wignall, dating someone who’s emotionally immature may involve dealing with their tendencies to avoid vulnerability, trying new things, or being alone with themselves and their uncomfortable thoughts and feelings; and their need to get the last word in. —Emma Specter, Vogue, 16 Aug. 2025

As anyone who’s weathered a few Kansas City winters knows, forecasts may give us hints, but around here, the weather always gets the last word. —Kansas City Star, 16 Aug. 2025