epilogue
noun
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").
Examples of epilogue in a Sentence
CBS News, 17 May 2026
That’s an intriguing philosophical swerve for the series that, however late arriving, paves the way for an unexpectedly moving epilogue after God honors Aziraphale and Crowley’s request to remake the universe as a place without gods or demons.
—Keith Phipps, Vulture, 13 May 2026
Late style represents neither a footnote nor an epilogue but rather—should an artist live long enough—a necessary point of evolution.
—David L. Ulin, The Atlantic, 11 May 2026
The epilogue Biostatistician Gathmann stayed at Novartis and moved up the ranks.
—Sydney Lupkin, NPR, 10 May 2026
See All Example Sentences for epilogue
Cite this Entry
“Epilogue.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/epilogue. Accessed 20 May. 2026.
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epilogue
noun
