the end: the point at which something stops, whether a stretch of time runs out, a quantity reaches its limit, or a decreed reckoning finally arrives
At its root this word names the outermost point of a thing, the place where it stops. The picture underneath is of something cut off, so the word marks a boundary rather than a gentle fading away.
Most often that boundary is a point in time. The Bible counts off a span of days or years and then says what happened at its close: at the end of forty days, at the end of seven years, at the end of the appointed period. In this use the word is almost a clock hand reaching the agreed hour.
It can also mark a limit of measure rather than of time. To say there is no end to a thing is to say it has no boundary: no limit to the peace of a coming king, no end to the making of many books, no stopping place for someone who keeps piling up wealth. Here the word measures how far something reaches.
In the prophets the same word takes on weight. It becomes the appointed end, the moment a nation's guilt is full and judgment falls, and in Daniel it stretches toward a final settling of all things. The shades are not separate words but one idea seen from different angles: the place where a thing must stop.