denouement

plural denouements

1. alternativeAlternative spelling of dénouement.

   Boris Johnson’s time as prime minister has at last reached its denouement.

   2022 July 7, Martha Gill, “Boris Johnson Made a Terrible Mistake: He Apologized”, in The New York Times, →ISSN

   5 more examples

   The denouement is the moment when all of the knots of a story are untied, […] But the denouement should not be confused with the end of a story.

   2005, Lemony Snicket, The Penultimate Peril

   Even without hovering drones, a lurking assassin, a thumping score and a denouement, the real-life story of Edward Snowden, a rogue spy on the run, could be straight out of the cinema. But, as with Hollywood, the subplots and exotic locations may distract from the real message: America’s discomfort and its foes’ glee.

   2013 June 29, “Travels and travails”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8842, page 55

   In the sizzling two-hour denouement, for example, the music titan Lucious Lyon (Terrence Howard) discovered that he didn’t have a terminal illness after all (Dun-dun-DUN).

   2015 March 19, Alessandra Stanley, “'Empire' Finale Review: A Sizzling End to Season One”, in New York Times

   Some commentators have said one of the more recent fall-outs – over noise reduction specifications campaigned for by local residents – is a fitting denouement to what has been a humiliating drama.

   2020, Kate Connolly, “'We were a laughing stock': Berlin airport finally finished as Covid bites”, in The Guardian

   And then, when all that is done, it somehow needs to find believable and distinct emotional denouements for (if I’ve counted correctly) 17 characters.

   2025 December 26, Stuart Heritage, “Stranger Things season five vol 2 review – the fact that this isn’t unbearable is a miracle”, in The Guardian, →ISSN