Skip to content
word of the day

The word for today is…

epilogue (noun):

1 : a concluding section that rounds out the design of a literary work
2a : a speech often in verse addressed to the audience by an actor at the end of a play
b : the final scene of a play that comments on or summarizes the main action
3 : the concluding section of a musical composition

Source : Merriam -Webster

Etymology : 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”).

If you enjoyed this BFD word of the day please consider sharing it with your friends and, especially, your children.

Latest