start to finish
The whole way
Start to finish describes the entire duration or extent of something, from beginning to end: She read the book start to finish in one sitting.
The phrase emphasizes completeness—nothing skipped or omitted.
It often appears with "from": From start to finish, the project took six months.
- beginningInitial stage of something
- endFinal portion or cessation
- beginning to endThe complete duration
- completeLacking nothing, fully done
- wholeFull and undivided
journey · marathon · wire to wire · process · duration · thorough · comprehensive · soup to nuts · stem to stern · A to Z · cover to cover · front to back · cradle to grave · dawn to dusk · full circle · entire · the whole nine yards · top to bottom
- chronological ordertimeline, calendar, date order, year by year, before and after
- end-to-end phrasesfront to back, end to end, nose to tail, bumper to bumper, stem to stern
- time wordsminute, hour, day, now, soon
- A to Zbeginning to end, full range, everything, the works, all-inclusive
- completenesscomplete, completely, entire, totally, total
- finish line expressionsdown to the wire, home stretch, final stretch, final lap, crossing the line
start to finishpartially
To an incomplete extent
incompletely · in part · halfway · partway · piecemeal
start to finishintermittently
At irregular intervals
on and off · off and on · sporadically · in fits and starts · discontinuously
start, finish, starts, started, starting, starter, starters, restart, restarted