photo finishes

noun

plural of photo finish
1
as in thrillers

Related Words

Relevance

Dissimilar Words
2
as in sudden deaths

Related Words

Example Sentences

Recent Examples of Synonyms for photo finishes
  1. thrillers
  2. round-robins
  3. hair-raisers
  4. runoffs
  5. nail-biters
  6. runs
  7. cliff-hangers
  8. volleys
Noun
  • The new ‘Burbs, expanded to eight episodes by creator Celeste Hughey, seems at first to be a stale, simplistic fusion of its namesake and the more recent wave of racially attuned social thrillers popularized by Get Out director Jordan Peele.
    — Judy Berman, Time, 8 July 2026
  • Though romance stories have long powered the microdrama industry, a host of creatives is trying to popularize bite-sized stories in other genres — from true crime to anime to thrillers to, now, faith and family.
    — Katie Kilkenny, HollywoodReporter, 7 July 2026
Definition of thrillers
Noun
  • Think structured round-robins, rotating roles in meetings, or paired discussions before group sharing.
    — Ruth Oh Reitmeier, Forbes.com, 3 Sep. 2025
Definition of round-robins
Noun
  • The streamer has a deep bench of horror films from all eras of cinema among its offerings, from influential classics like Nosferatu (1922) to newer hair-raisers like Possessor (2020), and all kinds of thrillers and chillers in between.
    — Kevin Jacobsen, Entertainment Weekly, 31 Jan. 2026
Definition of hair-raisers
Noun
  • Georgia gubernatorial primaries likely to head to runoffs Both the Democratic and Republican primaries could easily go to a runoff, meaning no single candidate reached a 50% majority during the first election.
    — Irene Wright, USA Today, 4 May 2026
  • Candidates look to avoid runoffs Meanwhile, Talarico and Crockett are hoping to avoid a May 26 runoff by capturing at least 50% of the Democratic vote in the March 3 primary.
    — Meg Kinnard, Chicago Tribune, 17 Feb. 2026
Definition of runoffs
Noun
  • Although there have been hundreds of close calls and nail-biters, there have been some comebacks that feel like a movie come to life.
    — Caroline Blair, PEOPLE, 11 June 2026
  • The Avs, who won the President’s Trophy with the league’s best regular-season record, opened the playoffs with a pair of 2-1 nail-biters over the Kings.
    — ABC News, ABC News, 4 May 2026
Definition of nail-biters
Noun
  • Eovaldi impressed with a season-high 10 strikeouts and allowed only two runs, marking a big flip from the night before.
    — Cal Phillips Updated July 9, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 10 July 2026
  • In April, in a four-game series against the New York Yankees, Trout hit five home runs and drove in nine runs.
    — Bill Shaikin, Los Angeles Times, 10 July 2026
Definition of runs
Noun
  • And many have speculated that Netflix’s vast trove of data informs certain narrative habits on its shows (cliff-hangers to encourage bingeing, for example, and frequent restating of plot points to engage viewers distracted by their phones).
    — Geoff Colvin, Fortune, 13 Mar. 2026
  • The biggest key to the success of minidramas, though, is the cliff-hangers, which push viewers to keep paying for the next episode.
    — Yixuan Tan, NBC news, 17 Aug. 2025
Definition of cliff-hangers
Noun
  • Shot of the day Karolína Muchová hit two incredible volleys in the tiebreak of her win against Coco Gauff.
    — James Hansen, New York Times, 9 July 2026
  • The crafty 10th-seeded Czech, whose slices and volleys are perfectly suited to Wimbledon’s low-bouncing surface, carries a medicine cabinet’s worth of remedies to prove that the All England Club’s famous lawns can be a real irritant.
    — Douglas Robson, Los Angeles Times, 8 July 2026
Definition of volleys
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Browse Nearby Words

photo finish
photo finishes
photog
See all Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

“Photo finishes.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/photo%20finishes. Accessed 14 Jul. 2026.

Copy Citation
Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!

More from Merriam-Webster

Word of the Day

Listen to the pronunciation of yaw

See Definitions and Examples »

Popular in Grammar & Usage

See More

Is that lie 'bald-faced' or 'bold-faced'?

'A' or 'an'? What about before 'h'? An Indefinite Article Guide

Why is '-ed' sometimes pronounced at the end of a word?

Commonly Misspelled Words

How to Use Em Dashes (—), En Dashes (–) , and Hyphens (-)
See More

Popular in Wordplay

See More

14 Phobias You Probably Haven't Heard Of

The Longest Long Words List

One-Word Oxymorons: Bittersweet, Spendthrift, and More

Ten Words Ending with a Silent ‘T’

The Words of the Week - Jul 10
See More

Popular

See More

Is that lie 'bald-faced' or 'bold-faced'?

14 Phobias You Probably Haven't Heard Of

The Longest Long Words List
See More

Games & Quizzes

See All
Play Quordle: Guess all four words in a limited number of tries. Each of your guesses must be a real 5-letter word.
Quordle Can you solve 4 words at once?
Play Blossom: Solve today's spelling word game by finding as many words as you can using just 7 letters. Longer words score more points.
Blossom Pick the best words!
Play Missing Letter: a crossword with a twist. Each of the 25 puzzle words start with a different letter of the alphabet. Which letter is missing?
The Missing Letter A daily crossword with a twist
banana-mirrored
Contradictory Words Quiz Pick out which word means one thing…and the opp...
See All