American getting stuffed in half of finals, unfortunately (4)
I believe the answer is:
alas
'unfortunately' is the definition.
('alas' is used to express regret)
'american getting stuffed in half of finals' is the wordplay.
'american getting' becomes 'a' (I can't justify this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'stuffed in' is an insertion indicator.
'half of' indicates taking half.
'finals' halved is 'als'.
'a' going within 'als' is 'ALAS'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for alas that I've seen before include "Woeful expression" , "Regrettably, unfortunately" , "More's the pity" , "Cry of regret" , "Lackaday" .)