coda

plural codas

1. entertainmentA passage that brings a movement or piece to a conclusion through prolongation.

   1 more example

   In classical music there are, as the analytical programs tell us, first subjects and second subjects, free fantasias, recapitulations, and codas; there are fugues, with counter-subjects, strettos, and pedal points; there are passacaglias on ground basses, canons ad hypodiapente, and other ingenuities, which have, after all, stood or fallen by their prettiness as much as the simplest folk-tune.

   1902 [1898], [George] Bernard Shaw, The Perfect Wagnerite […] , second edition, London: Grant Richards, page 3

   Synonyms: finale

2. human sciencesThe optional final sound of a syllable or word, occurring after its nucleus and usually composed of one or more consonants.

   The word “salts” has three consonants — /l/, /t/, and /s/ — in its coda, whereas the word “glee” has no coda at all.

   Synonyms: auslaut · Antonyms: anlaut, onset

3. geographyIn seismograms, the gradual return to baseline after a seismic event. The length of the coda can be used to estimate event magnitude, and the shape sometimes reveals details of subsurface structures.
4. figurativelyA conclusion (of a statement or event, for example), final portion, tail end.

   Downstairs, a little later, in the drawing room, the coda of the party was unwinding, and Gerald opening new bottles of champagne as though he made no distinction between the boring drunks who "sat," and the knowing few of the inner circle, gathered round the empty marble fireplace.

   2004, Alan Hollinghurst, chapter 9, in The Line of Beauty […], London: Picador, →ISBN

   2 more examples

   2014, Paul Salopek, Blessed. Cursed. Claimed., National Geographic (December 2014)https://web.archive.org/web/20150212214621/http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2014/12/pilgrim-roads/salopek-text In gray stormy light, their painted eyes stare out at the Mediterranean—at Homer’s wine-dark sea, at a corridor into modernity. But in memory my walk’s true coda in the Middle East came earlier.

   Redundancies accounted for a smaller proportion of the change, although no less significant to those affected. Rail News, BR's staff magazine, included a coda to its August 1964 assessment of the Beeching cuts: "For the individuals involved it is a worrying time [...] Rail News feels deeply for those affected and expresses the sympathy of its readers with them."

   2023 March 22, Mike Esbester, “Staff, the public and industry will suffer”, in RAIL, number 979, page 39

5. A series of clicks used by sperm whales for communicating with each other.

plural codas

1. alternativeAlternative spelling of CODA.

plural CODAs · alternative coda

1. A person born hearing to deaf parents.