Definition of "last word" [last word]

• The final statement in a verbal argument. (noun)
• A conclusive or authoritative statement or treatment: The report was considered to be the last word on the hazards of smoking. (noun)
• Power or authority of ultimate decision: The treasurer has the last word in all financial matters. (noun)
• Informal The newest or most fashionable example of its kind; the latest thing: a food processor that is the last word in kitchen equipment. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "In faith by hearing the last word rests with the teacher; in private judgment it rests with the reader, who submits the dead text of Scripture to a kind of post-mortem examination and delivers a verdict without appeal: he believes in himself rather than in any higher authority."
• "“Good ni-ight,” Carly said, the last word stretched into two falsetto syllables."
• "The first, as Mumford, who considered Geddes “my master,” explained, was to plan cities at a human scale to avoid the sprawling modern megalopolis, which Mumford called “the last word in imageless urban amorphousness.”"