ending
Americannoun
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endings
plural
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a bringing or coming to an end; termination; close.
Putting away the Christmas ornaments marked the ending of the season.
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the final or concluding part; conclusion.
a story with a happy ending.
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death; destruction.
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Grammar. a morpheme, especially an inflection, at the end of a word, as -s in cuts.
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(not in technical use) any final word part, as the -ow of widow.
noun
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the act of bringing to or reaching an end
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the last part of something, as a book, film, etc
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the final part of a word, esp a suffix
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chess another word for endgame
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
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of ending
First recorded before 1000; Middle English endyng, Old English endung; equivalent to end 1 + -ing 1
Vocabulary lists containing ending
Common Core Grade 6, List 3
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Common Core Grade 5, List 3
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Reading: Literature - Introductory
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
But it appears to be ending with a curse.
From Salon ● Sep. 4, 2026
Social media star Amelia Dimoldenberg is making way for a new chapter, ending her beloved celebrity interview series “Chicken Shop Date” after more than a decade.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 3, 2026
"We are grateful to India for its commitment to ending this unjust war," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on social media after meeting Jaishankar.
From Barron's ● Sep. 3, 2026
The 26-year-old is pivotal to the team, ending last season as the Premier League top scorer with 27 goals, and starting the new campaign by netting twice in as many games.
From BBC ● Sep. 2, 2026
“I owe it to you to help you. You didn’t get an ending and I didn’t even get a beginning.”
From "The Brightwood Code" by Monica Hesse
The findings suggest that imagery-based techniques can change how people respond to current challenges by allowing them to "write" new, safe endings to painful experiences from the past.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 18, 2026
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
Usually, advisers see these strategies work out to happy endings.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 28, 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
“God, Tris. Do you have no nerve endings or something?”
From "Insurgent" by Veronica Roth
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
