Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A short poem or speech spoken directly to the audience following the conclusion of a play.
- noun The performer who delivers such a short poem or speech.
- noun A short addition or concluding section at the end of a literary work, often dealing with the future of its characters.
- noun An event which reflects meaningfully on a recently ended conflict or struggle.
from The Century Dictionary.
- To epilogize.
- noun In rhetoric, the conclusion or closing part of a discourse or oration; the peroration.
- noun In dramatic or narrative writing, a concluding address; a winding up of the subject; specifically, in spoken dramas, a closing piece or speech, usually in verse, addressed by one or more of the performers to the audience.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun (Drama) A speech or short poem addressed to the spectators and recited by one of the actors, after the conclusion of the play.
- noun (Rhet.) The closing part of a discourse, in which the principal matters are recapitulated; a conclusion.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun A short
speech ,spoken directly at theaudience at the end of aplay - noun The
performer who gives this speech - noun A brief
oration orscript at the end of aliterary piece ; anafterword - noun computing A component of a
computer program that prepares the computer to return from aroutine .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun a short speech (often in verse) addressed directly to the audience by an actor at the end of a play
- noun a short passage added at the end of a literary work
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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Brief and direct, the epilogue is the strongest part of the book, because it reflects a principle too little in evidence elsewhere: Real tragedies are often so painful to read about that they are best served by understatement.
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The epilogue is meant, along with the preface, to bookend Sarah Crowe's narrative, conveyed by the manuscript published after her death.
Postcards from Europa (Pt. 2) greygirlbeast 2009
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Yes, the epilogue is mostly about Susan the serpent-girl - but the shawl reminds me of the mermaid's new ability to shift from dryad to mermaid.
Valentines, part the first mllelaurel 2009
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Is that, like, an epilogue of the whole Twilight series or is it the epilogue from the original Forever Dawn or is it, Idk, a summary of Forever Dawn?
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Because we are invested in the characters, the long epilogue is fairly convincing.
“Shaun of the Dead” bad boys sport hilarious “Hot Fuzz’” » Scene-Stealers 2007
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In conception, the film's two-hour epilogue is ingenious, a descent into absolute hysteria and madness wherein Biberkopf wanders through a politically and spiritually charged psychosexual dreamscape, complete with anachronistic musical cues from the likes of Janis Joplin, Lou Reed and Kraftwerk.
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The epilogue is an analysis of McCarthy's redbaiting which draws two main conclusions.
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The ending, denoument, and epilogue is a little odd, but the environment is very interesting.
Science Fiction, Fantasy, Horror: Sundiver - David Brin Blue Tyson 2006
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The epilogue is an analysis of McCarthy's redbaiting which draws two main conclusions.
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This isn't exactly a spoiler since I'm not giving away any plot details: the epilogue is short and does not tell you the fate of all the different towns and people you come across like the first two games do.
Tiny Subversions 2008
frindley commented on the word epilogue
ROSALIND. It is not the fashion to see the lady the epilogue; but it is no more unhandsome than to see the lord the prologue. If it be true that good wine needs no bush, 'tis true that a good play needs no epilogue. Yet to good wine they do use good bushes; and good plays prove the better by the help of good epilogues. What a case am I in then, that am neither a good epilogue, nor cannot insinuate with you in the behalf of a good play! I am not furnish'd like a beggar; therefore to beg will not become me. My way is to conjure you; and I'll begin with the women. I charge you, O women, for the love you bear to men, to like as much of this play as please you; and I charge you, O men, for the love you bear to women - as I perceive by your simp'ring none of you hates them - that between you and the women the play may please. If I were a woman, I would kiss as many of you as had beards that pleas'd me, complexions that lik'd me, and breaths that I defied not; and, I am sure, as many as have good beards, or good faces, or sweet breaths, will, for my kind offer, when I make curtsy, bid me farewell.
(As You Like It)
October 1, 2008