coda

¹

[ koh-duh ]

noun

1. Music. a more or less independent passage, at the end of a composition, introduced to bring it to a satisfactory close.
2. Ballet. the concluding section of a ballet, especially the final part of a pas de deux.
3. a concluding section or part, especially one of a conventional form and serving as a summation of preceding themes, motifs, etc., as in a work of literature or drama.
4. anything that serves as a concluding part.
5. Phonetics. the segment of a syllable following the nucleus, as the d- sound in good. Compare core ¹( def 14 ), onset ( def 3 ).

CODA

²

[ koh-duh ]

abbreviation for

1. child of deaf adultadults: a hearing person with a deaf parent or parents.

coda

/ ˈkəʊdə /

noun

1. music the final, sometimes inessential, part of a musical structure
2. a concluding part of a literary work, esp a summary at the end of a novel of further developments in the lives of the characters

coda

1. An ending to a piece of music, standing outside the formal structure of the piece. Coda is the Italian word for “tail.”

Word History and Origins

Origin of coda¹

First recorded in 1745–55; from Italian, from Latin cauda “tail”; queue

Origin of coda²

First recorded in 1990–95

Word History and Origins

Origin of coda¹

C18: from Italian: tail, from Latin cauda

Example Sentences

In its last act and the coda that follows, Old becomes more sentimental, more of a family drama than the film seemed to be at the start — and then, all of a sudden, it turns into something like science fiction.

From Vox

A bright, zesty lemon pudding makes a lovely coda to any meal, but topped with a quick blueberry whipped cream, it becomes a truly festive dessert.

From Washington Post

In his stringent efforts not to tell us what to think, Anthony makes some woolly detours, including a short coda that shows a group of students making a TV pilot as a class assignment.

From Time

Technically, there’s a fair amount of one-last-job action noir left after the doors close — but it’s pretty forgettable, pure coda, after that meeting and separation.

From Washington Post

The coda of this story is that my father, eventually and to his credit, got behind me and supported whatever direction I wished to take.

From Washington Post

Of course, you can read this just as a brilliant, subversive coda to a horror movie.

From The Daily Beast

Spoiler Alert: Do not read if you haven't seen season five episode eight of  The Walking Dead, “Coda”

From The Daily Beast

The scene serves as the coda to The Last of the Unjust, and it ranks as one of the most splendid closing sequences in cinema.

From The Daily Beast

Melville then appends an ultra-weird coda: There would seem little need for proceeding further in this history.

From The Daily Beast

And then the joke in the last verse of watching Walter Cronkite deliver the coda.

From The Daily Beast

And again, it has a coda pausing on the dominant chord and followed by an Andantino.

From Project Gutenberg

The coda is one of the most fascinating ever penned by Schubert.

From Project Gutenberg

Beethoven had originally intended that the entire scherzo, with the trio, should be repeated, and then be concluded by the coda.

From Project Gutenberg

It has the rondo form; the principal theme, twice relieved by an interlude, recurs three times, and winds up with a coda.

From Project Gutenberg

Finally, a new and important climax is introduced in the coda by the opposition of the two chief subjects.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• afterword
• postscript
• summation