epilogue
noun
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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
Megan McCluskey, Time, 10 Oct. 2025
In the epilogue, Edward kidnaps Bella.
—USA Today, 10 Oct. 2025
While Houston’s mention was more of an epilogue than a dissertation on the state of the room, the preseason star is firmly part of the pass rush story through five weeks.
—Nick Harris, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 6 Oct. 2025
Yet Lupino brings such intensity and anger to her performance that the film’s register shifts into something far darker — so dark, in fact, that a prologue and epilogue Jack Warner insisted be added to make the movie more glamorous focus on a suicide attempt!
—Jim Hemphill, IndieWire, 25 Sep. 2025
See All Example Sentences for epilogue
Cite this Entry
“Epilogue.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/epilogue. Accessed 4 Nov. 2025.
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epilogue
noun
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