epilogue

American  

[ep-uh-lawg, -log] / ˈɛp əˌlɔg, -ˌlɒg /

Rarely epilog

noun

epilogues plural

1. a usually short section appended to the conclusion of a book or film.

   The novel ends rather grimly, but the epilogue reveals that most of the characters go on to find fulfillment.

2. a later event that illuminates or reinforces the significance of an earlier set of events.

   The sad life of Tasso, the last great poet of the Italian Renaissance, was a fitting epilogue to the age, whose genius also declined into decadence.

3. a speech, usually in verse, delivered by one of the actors after the conclusion of a play.

4. the actor who delivers a play’s epilogue.

---

epilogue British  

/ ɪˈpɪlədʒɪst, ˈɛpɪˌlɒɡ /

noun

1. 1. a speech, usually in verse, addressed to the audience by an actor at the end of a play

   2. the actor speaking this

2. a short postscript to any literary work, such as a brief description of the fates of the characters in a novel

3. (esp formerly) the concluding programme of the day on a radio or television station, often having a religious content

---

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• epilogist
  noun

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• epilogues
  plural

Etymology

Origin of epilogue

First recorded in 1375–1425; late Middle English epiloge, from Latin epilogus, from Greek epílogos “conclusion of a speech,” equivalent to epi- epi- + lógos “word”

Explanation

If you like to read the end of a book first, then maybe the epilogue is for you. The epilogue is a short piece that wraps up the end of a story. The noun epilogue can also refer to the short speech at the end of a play that one of the characters speaks directly to the audience. In Shakespeare's play The Tempest, the epilogue is a 20-line monologue spoken by Prospero. Epilogue comes from the Greek word epilogus meaning the conclusion of a speech.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

epilogue epilogues

Some arias are cut; Donna Elvira’s Act 2 “Mi tradì” replaces her Act 1 “Ah, fuggi il traditor,” and there is no moralizing epilogue after the Don goes to hell.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 20, 2026

The book’s epilogue, “Ten Lessons in Prediction,” focuses on the merits of avoiding prediction when possible, rather than how to use it better.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 21, 2026

And you can expect more such details to surface as we finally get the Succession epilogue its fans have pined for, with a Tom Wambsgans type in charge.

From Slate ● Feb. 4, 2026

The novel is divided into 15 books as well as an epilogue, which itself is split into two parts.

From BBC ● Nov. 14, 2025

A frustrating epilogue to their story is that the 586th Regiment was never awarded the honorary and elite title of Guards.

From "A Thousand Sisters" by Elizabeth Wein

There are eight books in the series, plus a book of epilogues with a short story called “The Bridgertons: Happily Ever After.”

From Seattle Times ● Apr. 6, 2022

Amid all the suffering and violence, you’ll often find the rest of us in the footnotes, the appendices, and the epilogues.

From The New Yorker ● Jul. 22, 2019

From there, the show quickly downshifted into a mix of baffling and fan-servicing epilogues.

From Los Angeles Times ● May 20, 2019

And I loved the boxing sequence at the end, which seemed to function differently than most of the show’s epilogues.

From Slate ● Sep. 21, 2012

In serious work Dryden avoided double endings almost entirely, reserving them for playful and colloquial use in stage prologues, epilogues, and the like, thus:—

From Life of John Keats His Life and Poetry, his Friends, Critics and After-fame by Colvin, Sidney

Related Words

• afterword
• coda
• postscript
• summation