ending
/ˈɛndɪŋ
/noun
1An end or final part of something: the ending of the Cold War...
- As this is ballet, like opera, there are lots of improbable plot twists before the story concludes with a happy ending.
- Stories don't normally end in happy endings, but mine did.
- For Margie and her family, the rescue was a happy ending and the end of a horrible ordeal.
Synonyms
end, finish, close, closing, conclusion, resolution, summing-up, denouement, finale, final scene, last act;
cessation, stopping, termination, discontinuation, breaking off
informal wind-up, winding up
1.1The furthest part of something: a nerve ending...
- Sound from a microphone placed near the ear is converted to weak electrical currents that activate auditory nerve endings inside the cochlea in the inner ear.
- They share many nerve endings and chemical transmitters and, throughout life, the gut remains linked to the brain through a network of nerves and hormonal substances.
- The epithelium consists of five or six constantly renewing cell layers and nerve endings, which account for corneal sensitivity.
1.2The final part of a word, constituting a grammatical inflection or formative element: the student has to choose the right plural endings...
- The structure of Old English was more like Latin in that words had various inflectional endings to indicate their grammatical function.
- The real challenge, though, are the word endings.
- It doesn't have separate words for articles, prepositions, or pronouns, which are indicated by altered word endings.
Origin
Old English endung 'termination, completion' (see end, -ing1).