EPILOGUE


Meaning of EPILOGUE in English

I. noun

also ep·i·log ˈepəˌlȯg also -pēˌ- or -pi- or -läg

( -s )

Etymology: Middle English epiloge, from Middle French epilogue, from Latin epilogus, from Greek epilogos, from epilegein to say in addition, from epi- + legein to speak, gather — more at legend

1. : the final part that serves typically to round out or complete the design of a nondramatic literary work : conclusion

only in prefaces, epilogues and topical interjections … did they achieve ease and force — Boris Ford

— called also afterword ; compare foreword , preface

2.

a.

(1) : a speech often in verse addressed to the audience by one or more of the actors at the end of a play

a good play needs no epilogue yet … good plays prove the better by the help of good epilogues — Shakespeare

— compare prologue

(2) : the actor speaking such an epilogue

it is not the fashion to see the lady the epilogue but it is no more unhandsome than to see the lord the prologue — Shakespeare

b. : the final scene of a play whose main action is set within a framework

the epilogue reassembles the characters of the prologue, their experience enriched by the insight that the main body of the plot has given them — F.H.O'Hara & Margueritte Bro

3. : something felt to resemble an epilogue: as

a. : an incident or series of events that completes, rounds out, or gives point to a previous incident or series of events

the story can be regarded either as an epilogue to the history of Roman Britain or as a prologue to the history of Saxon England — F.M.Stenton

b. : the concluding section of a musical composition : coda

II. transitive verb

( -ed/-ing/-s )

: to supply with an epilogue

Webster's New International English Dictionary.      Новый международный словарь английского языка Webster.