finalize. finish

In The Elements of Style, Strunk and White declare that finalize is a “pompous, ambiguous verb.” They explain,

“Finalize ... is not standard; it is special, and it is a peculiarly fuzzy and silly word. Does it mean terminate, or does it mean put into final form? One can't be sure, really, what it means, and one gets the impression that the person using it doesn’t know, either, and doesn't want to know.”

In Style: Toward Clarity and Grace, Joseph Williams argues otherwise. He acknowledges that “some may think finalize still smacks too much of the bureaucratic mind, an understandable objection.” But he draws a distinction between finalize and finish:

“Never use finalize to mean finish, complete, end. Finalize does not mean what any of those other words mean. Finalize means to clean up the last details of an extended project, a specific sense captured by no other word.”