Final is used to indicate: - a variable that cannot be changed - a method that cannot be overriden - a class that cannot be extended Finally is used with try/catch blocks and is where you put code that you always want to execute., regardless of what happens it the try. A good use for this is closing IO streams or unlocking a thread. It will always be executed unless the application crashes entirely or System.exit is called. Finalize is a method on the object class. It is rarely overridden and is for code that should be run just prior to garbage collection.