Other forms: lasted, lasting, lasts
Last means coming after all the others. The last day of term, the last slice of cake, the last person out switches off the lights.
The trap is the other meaning: last also means the one before now. Last week, last night, last summer — nothing final about any of them, just the most recent one gone by. Say 'the last bus' and only the context tells you whether it is the final bus of the night or the bus you caught yesterday. Last is a busy verb too: it means to continue for a stretch of time (the meeting lasted two hours) and to stay usable (these boots will last you a winter). As an adverb it means after everyone else or most recently — 'I saw him last on Tuesday' — and 'at last' means finally, after a long wait.
1adjectivelastComing after all the others in order or time.~59%
“He was the last runner to cross the line, and the crowd stayed for him.”
synonyms: final, closing
2adjectiverecentMost recent; the one before this one.~10%
“We went there last summer and the beach was empty.”
3verbcontinueTo continue for a period of time.~24%
“The storm lasted three days and took the fence with it.”
4verbgoodTo stay in good condition, or to be enough for a period.~2%
“Cheap tools do not last; buy one good hammer instead.”
5adverbeveryoneAfter everyone else, or on the most recent occasion.~5%
“She spoke last, and nobody left before she finished.”
Shares are an estimate: a language model read 20 sentences found in the wild and placed 20 of them on a sense — a count of our sample, not a measurement of English.
Also accepted in games: final
Last was squeezed out of latest. Old English latost — the most late — wore down through Middle English laste until the middle of it fell away. So last and latest are the same word twice over, and that is exactly why last can mean both the final one and the most recent one: the latest thing is both at once.
Old English
latost
Middle English
laste
English, today
last
From Middle English laste, latst, syncopated variant of latest, both ultimately from Old English latost. a doublet of latest.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA