epilogue

noun ep·i·logue \ ˈe-pə-ˌlȯg , -ˌläg \

variants: or less commonly epilog

|Updated on: 22 Jul 2018

Definition of epilogue

1 : a concluding section that rounds out the design of a literary work

2 a : a speech often in verse addressed to the audience by an actor at the end of a play; also : the actor speaking such an epilogue

b : the final scene of a play that comments on or summarizes the main action

3 : the concluding section of a musical composition : coda

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Recent Examples of epilogue from the Web

Understanding Gilead's rise primes the show's audience for its eventual fall - which Atwood foreshadowed in her novel's epilogue.

— hank stuever, chicagotribune.com, "We survived another grueling season of 'The Handmaid's Tale,' but here are 3 things we need from Season 3," 12 July 2018
Scholars transcribed the tapes and studied their contents, and in the epilogue, a male professor gives a talk on them at a university conference several decades into the future.

— emma dibdin, Harper's BAZAAR, "This Week's Grueling Handmaid's Tale Is A One-Woman Show," 27 June 2018
The rescissions package is the epilogue to March’s spending saga, when Mr. Trump threatened to veto the congressional omnibus and pledged never to sign such a bill again.

— mark walker, WSJ, "Start Cutting Spending—and Don’t Stop," 8 May 2018
This ties into the epilogue of the book, in which author Margaret Atwood reveals that the story is actually a collection of tapes made by Offred detailing her time in the Waterford household.

— emma dibdin, Harper's BAZAAR, "This Week's Grueling Handmaid's Tale Is A One-Woman Show," 27 June 2018
Cost: Lunch costs $288 for six courses, plus the customary preludes and epilogues, and $388 for an eight-course dinner plus tax, though gratuity is included.

— jonathan kauffman, SFChronicle.com, "Baumé in Palo Alto has two Michelin stars — and only two staff," 22 June 2018
All good series finales tend to leave us in a similar state of eternal curiosity, craving more epilogue or some definitive flash-forward.

— hank stuever, chicagotribune.com, "In a somber, satisfying 'Americans' finale, Philip and Elizabeth make a painful choice," 31 May 2018
Watching so many ends and beginnings that reference each other—with the great breadth of the movie surgically removed so that the first word and epilogue touch—is like auditing film school and peeking into the director's bag of tricks.

— andrew moseman, Popular Mechanics, "Watch the First and Last Shots of 55 Movies, Side-by-Side," 21 Mar. 2015
When at long last the volume drops from 11 and Mr. Preston reflects on his 10-year arc, the epilogue is a contemplative decrescendo of hard-won humility and gratitude.

— forrest pritchard, WSJ, "‘The New Farm’ and ‘Fruitful Labor’ Reviews: Betting the Farm on Organic," 13 Apr. 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'epilogue.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Did You Know?

From its Greek roots, epilogue means basically "words attached (at the end)". An epilogue often somehow wraps up a story's action, as in the one for a famous Shakespeare play that ends, "For never was a story of more woe / Than this of Juliet and her Romeo". In nonfiction books, we now often use the term afterword instead of epilogue, just as we now generally use foreword instead of prologue. Movies also often have a kind of epilogue--maybe a scene after the exciting climax when the surviving lovers meet in a café to talk about their future. The epilogue of a musical composition, after all the drama is over, is called the coda (Italian for "tail").

Origin and Etymology of epilogue

Middle English epiloge, from Middle French epilogue, from Latin epilogus, from Greek epilogos, from epilegein to say in addition, from epi- + legein to say — more at legend

NEW! Time Traveler

First Known Use: 15th century

in the meaning defined at sense 1

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