ending
Americannoun
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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
- unending adjective
- unendingly adverb
Etymology
Origin of ending
First recorded before 1000; Middle English endyng, Old English endung; equivalent to end 1 + -ing 1
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.
Nike has now experienced sales declines in China for seven straight quarters, and the current one, ending May 31, could be even worse.
Also read: Stocks surge, ending a tough March on a high note.
From MarketWatch
Workers who stayed in the same job saw their incomes rise 4.5% in the 12 months ending in March — the same rate as the past three months, ADP said.
From MarketWatch
In short, for the hundreds of thousands who have been forced out of their homes, this war is not ending anytime soon.
From BBC
It previously forecast that the inflation rate would ease this year, ending around 3.2%, the federation said.
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.
