ending

American  

[en-ding] / ˈɛn dɪŋ /

noun

• endings
  plural

1. a bringing or coming to an end; termination; close.

   Putting away the Christmas ornaments marked the ending of the season.

2. the final or concluding part; conclusion.

   a story with a happy ending.

3. death; destruction.

4. Grammar. a morpheme, especially an inflection, at the end of a word, as -s in cuts.

5. (not in technical use) any final word part, as the -ow of widow.

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ending British  

/ ˈɛndɪŋ /

noun

1. the act of bringing to or reaching an end

2. the last part of something, as a book, film, etc

3. the final part of a word, esp a suffix

4. chess another word for endgame

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Usage

What is an ending? An ending is a conclusion, as in I like stories with a happy ending. An ending is also a time when something is finishing or nearing completion, as in I’m ending my school career with all As. An ending is the opposite of a beginning and is used to mean the conclusion of something. Movies have endings. So do civilizations, like the Roman Empire. We even sometimes refer to a person’s death as an ending. Endings and the reasons or events surrounding them are often intensely studied or debated. Example: I liked the book until the terrible ending where the villain won in the last chapter.

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• unending
  adjective
• unendingly
  adverb

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• endings
  plural

Etymology

Origin of ending

First recorded before 1000; Middle English endyng, Old English endung; equivalent to end ¹ + -ing ¹

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

ending endings

Patterson's team say they were inconsistent about a motive, starting the trial by saying they wouldn't argue a particular motive, but ending it by implying there was one.

From BBC ● Aug. 17, 2026

Target most recently reported a 5.6% comparable sales jump for the quarter ending May 2, its biggest quarterly increase since early 2022.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 17, 2026

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission gave its stamp of approval, ending a three-year process to allow the plant to power on.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 16, 2026

According to data from Circana, they represented 1.6% of women’s total footwear sales for the 12 months ending in June; that was a bit up from 1.4% a year before.

From MarketWatch ● Aug. 15, 2026

But Brickbane had clearly known his time in Deadwood was ending when Clare was chosen to replace him.

From "The Undead Fox of Deadwood Forest" by Aubrey Hartman

At the end of the documentary, however, Griezmann stood in front of the Metropolitano and revealed he was staying at Atletico Madrid in one of two different endings reportedly filmed to keep the decision secret.

From BBC ● Aug. 15, 2026

On a number of your films, most famously with “Fatal Attraction” and “Unfaithful,” it was very public that you would test and change the endings.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 12, 2026

The final twist is one of the bleakest endings in postwar fiction, precisely because it exposes survival itself as a kind of illusion.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 22, 2026

There are no happy endings here, at least ones that are fortified by the American way of life.

From Salon ● Jul. 4, 2026

True optimism, as Agatha Swanburne defined it, is the habit of expecting happy endings in a way that keeps one cheerfully working to make them come true.

From "The Hidden Gallery" by Maryrose Wood

Related Words

• closure
• completion
• denouement
• finale
• outcome
• period
• resolution