end, close, tip, powder, posterity
末 centers on the extreme or final part of something: the tip, the end, or what comes after. The powder sense is a fine, ground-down end product, and posterity is the far end of a lineage.
末 is a pictograph of a tree with an extra stroke at the top to indicate the tip or end of the branches. The modern form preserves this idea of the furthest point.
The top horizontal stroke is longer, marking the tip of the tree 木. Think of the very end of a branch, the final tip where new growth stops.
For マツ, imagine reaching the end of a long line of mats: the last mat marks the tip, and mats -> マツ.
end; tip; top
the end (of)
weekend
terminal; computer terminal
end of the month
end-of-year; year-end
last years; closing years; last days; closing days; end; last stage; final stages; terminal stage (of a disease)
end; conclusion
management; dealing with; settlement; cleaning up; disposal
Bakumatsu period; closing days of the Tokugawa shogunate; end of the Edo period
end; close; conclusion; termination
fine powder
end; tip; extremities; terminal
crude; rough; plain; humble; shabby; poor-quality; low-quality
end (e.g. of report, document, paragraph, etc.)
youngest child
end of term
end of a book
settlement (of a matter); sorting out; winding up (affairs); dealing with the aftermath
last day (of a month)
spreading out like an open fan
year end
omission; failure; incompleteness
end of a century (esp. 19th); fin-de-siècle