A finalist is someone who has made it to the final round of a competition, but hasn't yet won. When a spelling bee starts with 100 students and narrows down to the last 5 competing for the championship, those 5 are the finalists. They've already beaten most of their competitors, but the winner hasn't been determined yet.

Being a finalist is a significant achievement. Think about a science fair: maybe 50 students enter projects, judges eliminate most of them in early rounds, and only 3 finalists remain to compete for first place. Those finalists have already proven themselves better than many other competitors.

The word appears in all kinds of contests: Olympic finalists compete for medals, finalist bands at a battle of the bands play for the top prize, and finalists for a scholarship wait to learn who receives the award. You might see a book described as “a National Book Award finalist,” meaning it was good enough to reach the final round of judging.

Making it to finalist status means you've succeeded at a high level. You've outperformed almost everyone else.