variants
also dénouements
as in endings
formal
the final part of something (such as a book, a play, or a series of events)
In the play's denouement, the two lovers kill themselves. the competition's exciting denouement
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Recent Examples of denouements
A number of denouements follow in All That’s Left of You, including a jump forward into 2022, when Hanan and Salim, who now live in Canada, go back to Jaffa and find Salim’s old family home, a run-down oasis of the past in a city determined to forget its history.
—
Roxana Hadadi, Vulture, 24 Mar. 2026
Roxana Hadadi, Vulture, 24 Mar. 2026
Recent Examples of Synonyms for denouements
Noun
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Parents are choosing names with softer sounds and vowel endings such as Alonso, Ilyas, Amos, and Lennon for boys, and Rhea, Rosalina, Aura, Ines, and Zeina for girls.—
Saman Shafiq,
USA Today,
9 June 2026
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The end of Dexter is so widely hated that it’s considered by many to be among the worst TV show endings ever.—
Brianna Zigler,
Entertainment Weekly,
9 June 2026
Noun
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Kansas City is 2-4 in rubber games and 6-14 in series finales.—
ABC News,
ABC News,
3 June 2026
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Colbert’s goodbye — running some 17 minutes over — was ambitious in a way that other TV late night finales were not.—
Mark Kennedy,
Fortune,
23 May 2026
Noun
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The movie went on to spawn two sequels, and Fox cemented his status as a young actor to watch.—
Rebecca Aizin,
PEOPLE,
9 June 2026
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More than 40 years later, Ghostbusters has become a multimedia franchise, with most of the original stars reprising their roles in 1989's Ghostbusters II and the two legacy sequels in the 2020s.—
Declan Gallagher,
Entertainment Weekly,
8 June 2026
Noun
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People can draw their own conclusions, though.—
Zac Anderson,
USA Today,
7 June 2026
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Lee also warned about drawing strong conclusions from early returns, estimating that only about 40% of ballots cast had been counted through Wednesday.—
David Garrick,
San Diego Union-Tribune,
4 June 2026
Noun
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The Netflix dating experiment that promised love sight unseen has produced one of its darkest aftermaths yet.—
Hanna Wickes,
Sacbee.com,
28 Apr. 2026
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Instead, headlines focus on tragedies and their painful aftermaths instead of prevention.—
Laura Carno,
Denver Post,
24 Sep. 2025
Noun
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What truly sets it apart, however, is its vibrant and colorful universe, where imagination can suddenly burst onto the screen in musical-like dance sequences.—
Zac Ntim,
Deadline,
8 June 2026
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The early retirement years are when a portfolio is most vulnerable to bad market sequences, and starting five years earlier means five more years exposed to that vulnerability.—
Jon Sabes,
Fortune,
7 June 2026
Cite this Entry
“Denouements.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/denouements. Accessed 13 Jun. 2026.
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