afterword

American  

[af-ter-wurd, ahf-] / ˈæf tərˌwɜrd, ˈɑf- /

noun

• afterwords
  plural

1. a concluding section, commentary, etc., as of a book, treatise, or the like; closing statement.

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afterword British  

/ ˈɑːftəˌwɜːd /

noun

1. an epilogue or postscript in a book, etc

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• afterwords
  plural

Etymology

Origin of afterword

First recorded in 1885–90; after + word

Explanation

In a book, the afterword comes at the very end and tells you something about how it came to be written. The afterword is often written by someone other than the book's author. An afterword is similar to a foreword — the only difference is that it comes at the end of a text, instead of at the beginning. Unlike an epilogue, which wraps up a story, an afterword is separate from the narrative, and it's rarely written by the author. Instead, it's commentary by another writer that gives the reader extra information about how the book was developed, how it fits into a historical context, or biographical details about its author.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

afterword afterwords

The derby has a “particularly American show of garishness and swagger,” Ms. Kobielski observes in a brief afterword.

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 1, 2026

You also write in the afterword about leaving Gaza and going to Lebanon, only to find the war following you there.

From Slate ● Sep. 22, 2025

As critic Gary Scharnhorst writes in an afterword to a recent edition of this classic: “The riposte to ‘it can’t happen here’ is ‘it already has.”

From Salon ● May 17, 2025

“You like it darker? Fine. So do I,” King states in his afterword.

From New York Times ● May 31, 2024

Michael Frayn, in an afterword to his play Copenhagen, notes that several words in German–Unsicherheit, Unschärfe, Unbestimmtheit–have been used by various translators, but that none quite equates to the English uncertainty.

From "A Short History of Nearly Everything" by Bill Bryson

Forewords, prefaces and afterwords rank squarely among literature’s stepchildren — above marginalia and non-David Foster Wallace footnotes perhaps but below prologues and postscripts.

From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 11, 2019

Holocaust novels—for adults as well as for young readers—tend to include extensive afterwords detailing the stories on which they are based and the ways, if any, in which they deviate from their sources.

From The New Yorker ● Jul. 16, 2018

Try massage therapy afterwords, but having that highly valuable degree is always something to fall back on.

From Slate ● Sep. 25, 2017

I filled out an affidavit and voted, but afterwords an official said to take it up with the NY Board of Elections as "they weren't the brightest people."

From New York Times ● Apr. 19, 2016

The most important portion is written, or perhaps better, compiled, by Snorre Sturleson, and the whole is finally edited and furnished with forewords and afterwords, early in the fourteenth century,—according to Keyser, about 1320-1330.

From The Younger Edda Also called Snorre's Edda, or The Prose Edda by Rasmus Björn Anderson