people or teams who have advanced to the final stage of a competition or contest.
From 'final' (from Latin 'finalis' meaning 'of the end') plus the agent suffix '-ist' meaning 'one who.' The word became standard in English in the 20th century as competitions formalized.
Making it to the finals often involves more luck than skill because of selection bias—if you're in a field of finalists, you're competing against people of similarly high ability, making random variation matter more than at earlier stages.
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