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:
The zombie nightmare haunting private-equity firms isn’t ending anytime soon, my colleagues Matt Wirz and Mark Maurer report.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 18, 2026
The move comes as the war shows no sign of ending.
From BBC ● Sep. 17, 2026
Generac shares rose more than 34% in the after-hours session Wednesday, after ending the regular trading day up less than 0.1%.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 16, 2026
Similarly, Eleazar would be ending her whirlwind few days in Toronto by heading to Los Angeles to be with the “Slow Horses” team for the Emmys on Monday.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 16, 2026
“Hurricanes are coming earlier and ending later,” Natalie told her.
From "Two Degrees" by Alan Gratz
And it will shift depending on how one reacts, as there are multiple endings.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 18, 2026
Alongside the pearled axons, they found evidence of ultrafast endocytosis, a process through which nerve endings quickly retrieve membrane after releasing chemical messages.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 17, 2026
Transformations often are viewed as projects with beginnings and endings.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 3, 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
Park addressed Shin using honorific nouns and verb endings.
From "Escape from Camp 14: One Man's Remarkable Odyssey from North Korea to Freedom in the West" by Blaine Harden
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.
