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epilogue

UK/ˈɛp.ɪ.lɒɡ/US/ˈɛpɪlɔɡ/
nounB2+Rare in speech; mostly a word you read · #13,666 of 15,258leans written

Other forms: epilogues

An epilogue is a closing section added after the main story. A short epilogue, the epilogue reveals, skip the epilogue.

In novels it usually jumps forward to show what became of everybody, which readers either love or find unnecessary. In a play it was a speech to the audience after the action, and Shakespeare wrote several.

Definitions of epilogue

  1. 1nounepilogueA closing section added after the main story.B2+

    “The film's epilogue shows the real people behind the story, years after the events.”

epilogue is a section.

Where it comes from

Greek epilogos is epi, upon, plus logos, a speech, meaning a concluding word.

  1. Ancient Greek

    ἐπίλογος — a conclusion, peroration of a speech, epilogue of a play

  2. Latin

    epilogus

  3. Middle French

    epilogue

  4. English, today

    epilogue

Built from

  • ἐπιλέγω · Ancient Greek — to say in addition

Middle French epilogue, from Latin epilogus, from Ancient Greek ἐπίλογος (“a conclusion, peroration of a speech, epilogue of a play”), from ἐπιλέγω (“to say in addition”). Eclipsed lenvoie borrowed ultimately from Old French. Equivalent to epi- + -logue.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practise this word

epilogue in the wild

  • An epilogue or epilog is a piece of writing at the end of a work of literature, usually used to bring closure to the work.

    Epilogue

  • Some genres, for example television programs and video games, call the epilogue an "outro" patterned on the use of "intro" for "introduction".

    Epilogue

  • The Voyage is an opera in three acts (plus a prologue and an epilogue) by the American composer Philip Glass.

    The Voyage (opera)

  • Swiss scholar Wolfgang Lazius attributed the full collection on the basis of an epilogue to one of the books mentioning "Abdias, Bishop of Babylon" in a 1552 edition.

    Pseudo-Abdias

  • "The New Man in Charge" is the epilogue of ABC's serial drama television series Lost.

    The New Man in Charge

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.