: 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
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").
Example Sentences
Recent Examples on the WebIn an epilogue, Mr. Atxaga somewhat defensively explains that his primary theme is friendship. Sam Sacks, WSJ, 19 Aug. 2022 The news comes from James Gunn directly, who confirmed on Twitter that the holiday special will be the current phase’s epilogue. Chris Smith, BGR, 1 Aug. 2022 Heck, the climax is among the film's best elements, including the epilogue that playfully explains the film’s subtitle. Scott Mendelson, Forbes, 11 July 2022 Set across eight dramatically transformative years in Freddie’s life, the film is divided in three, and rounded off with an epilogue — with the first section, detailing this first visit to Seoul, the longest and most straightforward. Jessica Kiang, Variety, 27 May 2022 Case in point: The Emmy-winning stand-up comic opens with an epilogue, concludes with the prologue and drops in an intermission to encourage mid-reading decompression.Washington Post, 29 Mar. 2022 Radomski provides another hopeful note in the epilogue. Paul A. Smith, Journal Sentinel, 7 July 2022 The film has a pseudo-literary construction, built, as a title card declares, in twelve chapters plus a prologue and an epilogue. Richard Brody, The New Yorker, 7 Feb. 2022 That the epilogue ends with the Upside Down finally breaking into the real world suggests that no one will be going on any road trips for the concluding season, at least. Alan Sepinwall, Rolling Stone, 1 July 2022 See More
Word History
Etymology
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