Meanings
ending1
plural endings
- A termination or conclusion.
Synonyms: conclusion, end, termination
- The last part of something.
The book has a happy ending.
2 more examples
The film has an unexpected ending.
Modern romance, like Greek tragedy, celebrates the mystery of dismemberment, which is life in time. The happy ending is justly scorned as a misrepresentation; for the world, as we know it, as we have seen it, yields but one ending: death, disintegration, dismemberment, and the crucifixion of our heart with the passing of the forms that we have loved.
1968, Joseph Campbell, The Hero with a Thousand Faces, 2nd edition, London: Fontana Press, published 1993, page 25 - grammarThe last morpheme of a word, added to some base to make an inflected form (such as -s in "dogs").
Spanish verb forms have different endings depending on the tense, mood and person.
1 more example
Using diachronic evidence from Swedish, I will show that inflectional endings may be maintained as “less cumulative” inflections, or even degrammaticalize into a derivational suffix or a clitic.
2002, Ilse Wischer, Gabriele Diewald, New Reflections on Grammaticalization, John Benjamins Publishing, →ISBN, page 45
ending2
- gerundparticiplepresentpresent participle and gerund of end
Synonyms & antonyms
nounA termination or conclusion.
More synonyms by meaning
nounthe end of a word (a suffix or inflectional ending or final morpheme)
nounevent whose occurrence ends something
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Origin
ending · noun
- Old Englishendung
- Middle Englishendynge
- Englishending
From Middle English endynge, endyng, endinge, from Old English endung, ġeendung (“ending”), equivalent to end + -ing. Cognate with Dutch ending (“ending”), German Endung (“ending”).
More words from Middle English, Old English
Full word history & related roots →ending · verb
- Proto-Germanic*andijōną“to end”
- Proto-Germanic*andijōndz
- Old Englishendiende
- Middle Englishending
- Englishending
From Middle English ending, endyng, endende, from Old English endiende, from Proto-Germanic *andijōndz, present participle of Proto-Germanic *andijōną (“to end”), equivalent to end + -ing.
More words from Middle English, Old English, Proto-Germanic
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Bulgarian край, завършване
- край (kraj)termination or conclusion
- завършване (zavăršvane)termination or conclusion
- завършек (zavăršek)termination or conclusion
- завършък (zavăršăk)termination or conclusion
- край (kraj)last part of something
- завършек (zavăršek)last part of something
- завършък (zavăršăk)last part of something
Catalan fi, final
- fitermination or conclusion
- finaltermination or conclusion
- finallast part of something
Chinese Mandarin 結束 /结束, 結局 /结局
- 結束 /结束 (jiéshù)termination or conclusion
- 結局 /结局 (jiéjú)last part of something
Danish slutning, afslutning
- slutningtermination or conclusion
- afslutningtermination or conclusion
- endelast part of something
Dutch beëindiging
- beëindigingtermination or conclusion
Finnish loppu, loppuminen
- lopputermination or conclusion
- loppuminentermination or conclusion
- päätöstermination or conclusion
- loppulast part of something
- loppuosalast part of something
French fin
- fintermination or conclusion
German Ende, Ablauf
- Endetermination or conclusion
- Ablauftermination or conclusion
- Beendigungtermination or conclusion
- Endelast part of something
Greek κατάληξη, πέρας
- κατάληξη (katálixi)last part of something
- πέρας (péras)last part of something
Italian terminazione, cessazione
- terminazionetermination or conclusion
- cessazionetermination or conclusion
- finetermination or conclusion
- chiusuratermination or conclusion
- terminelast part of something
- finalelast part of something
Japanese 終わり, 結末
- 終わり (owari)termination or conclusion
- 結末 (ketsumatsu)termination or conclusion
- 結び (musubi)termination or conclusion
Korean 종결
- 종결 (jonggyeol)termination or conclusion
Latin exitus, finis
- exitustermination or conclusion
- finistermination or conclusion
- exitustermination or conclusion
- terminustermination or conclusion
- extremumtermination or conclusion
- peractiotermination or conclusion
- extremustermination or conclusion
- finislast part of something
- terminuslast part of something
- extremuslast part of something
- exituslast part of something
- extremumlast part of something
Māori porotutukitanga, poronga
- porotutukitangatermination or conclusion
- porongalast part of something
Norwegian Bokmål avslutning, ending
- avslutningtermination or conclusion
- endingtermination or conclusion
- endelsetermination or conclusion
- slutttermination or conclusion
- endinglast part of something
- endelselast part of something
- endelast part of something
Portuguese fim, final
- fimtermination or conclusion
- finaltermination or conclusion
- términotermination or conclusion
- conclusãotermination or conclusion
- finalizaçãotermination or conclusion
- terminaçãotermination or conclusion
- fimlast part of something
- finallast part of something
Romanian sfârșit, încheiere
- sfârșittermination or conclusion
- încheieretermination or conclusion
- finaltermination or conclusion
- sfârșitlast part of something
Russian заверше́ние, оконча́ние
- заверше́ние (zaveršénije)termination or conclusion
- оконча́ние (okončánije)termination or conclusion
- коне́ц (konéc)termination or conclusion
- оконча́ние (okončánije)last part of something
- коне́ц (konéc)last part of something
Spanish finalización, final
- finalizacióntermination or conclusion
- finallast part of something
Ukrainian заве́ршення, закі́нчення
- заве́ршення (zavéršennja)termination or conclusion
- закі́нчення (zakínčennja)termination or conclusion
- закі́нчення (zakínčennja)last part of something
- кіне́ць (kinécʹ)last part of something
Yiddish סוף
- סוף (sof)last part of something
Rhymes & wordplay
Rhymes with ending
Anagrams
Cite this entry
ending. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/ending
“ending.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/ending. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “ending,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/ending.
Source: ending on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.