Denouement

Definitions: Denouement

Denouement

Noun

1. The outcome of a complex sequence of events.

2. The final resolution of the main complication of a literary or dramatic work.

Date "denouement" was first used: 1752. (references)

Domain	Definitions
Literature	Denouement (3 syl.). The untying of a plot; the winding-up of a novel or play. (French dénouer, to untie.). Source: Brewer's Dictionary.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Denouement, in literature, is the end effect of a character's earlier actions. Denouement occurs after the climax. There is a "turning point" between the climax and the denouement, termed "peripitea".

Warning: Wikipedia contains spoilers

The term is borrowed into English from the French.

Examples

Context	Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus).
Completion	Noun: completion, accomplishment, achievement, fulfillment; performance, execution; despatch, dispatch; consummation, culmination; finish, conclusion; close; (end); terminus; (arrival); winding up; finale, denouement, catastrophe, issue, upshot, result; final touch, last touch, crowning touch, finishing touch, finishing stroke; last finish, coup de grace; crowning of the edifice; coping-stone, keystone; missing link; superstructure, ne plus ultra, work done, fait accompli.
Disclosure	Bursting of a bubble; denouement.
Effect	Noun: effect, consequence; aftergrowth, aftercome; derivative, derivation; result; resultant, resultance; upshot, issue, denouement; end; development, outgrowth, fruit, crop, harvest, product, bud.
End	Consummation, denouement; finish; (completion); fate; doom, doomsday; crack of doom, day of Judgment, dies irae, fall of the curtain; goal, destination; limit, determination; expiration, expiry, extinction, extermination; death; end of all things; finality; eschatology.
Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus.

Crosswords: Denouement

English words defined with "denouement": Anagnorisis. (references)

Domain	Title
Books	Decade of Detente: Shifting Definitions and Denouement (reference) The Last Chopper: The Denouement of the American Role in Vietnam, 1963-1975 (reference) (more book examples)

Theater & Movies	Ceres, Celestial Legend - Denouement (Vol. 8) (reference) (more DVD examples; more video examples)

Music	Denouement (reference) (more classical music examples; more popular music examples)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

"Denouement" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 100.00% of the time. "Denouement" is used about 42 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted)

Parts of Speech	Percent	Usage per 100 Million Words	Rank in English
Noun (singular)	100%	42	52,864

The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com.

Language		Translations for "denouement"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses.
Albanian		zgjidhje (annulling, answer, canceling, disentanglement, disposal, disposition, key, resolution, settlement, solution, undoing, unfastening, untying), përfundim (afterpiece, closing, closure, completion, conclusion, consequence, consummation, derivation, development, eduction, effect, end product, event, expiration, finality, finding, finish, fulfillment, fulfilment, harvest, issue, job, lapse, last, offshoot, offspring, outcome, output, perfecting, performance, result, resume, rider, total, train, upshot, windup). (various references)

Arabic		‏نتيجة وضع معقد, ‏وضوح نهائي, ‏حل العقدة في الرواية. (various references)

Bulgarian		развръзка (discovery, payoff, resolution). (various references)

Czech		rozuzlení. (various references)

French		dénouement. (various references)

German		Neuerung (improvement, innovation, neologism, novation, reform), Lösung (answer, breaking off, cancellation, dip, dissolving, key, lotion, resolution, resolving, root, severance, severing, solution). (various references)

Greek		λύση (disentanglement, key, solution). (various references)

Hebrew		�"תרת סבך (disentanglement), �"ב�"ר�" סופית. (various references)

Hungarian		megoldás (accomplishment, clearing up, disentanglement, expedient, resolving, resort, solution, solving, there is no choice, unravelling), kifejlet (catastrophe). (various references)

Italian		scioglimento (dissolution, leaching). (various references)

Japanese Kanji		終局 (close, conclusion, end, end of a game of go, finale), 大団円 (conclusion, ending, finale). (various references)

Japanese Katakana		しゅうきょく (bend, close, conclusion, end, end of a game of go, final, finale, geologic fold, ultimate), � い� �"え�" (conclusion, ending, finale). (various references)

Pig Latin		enouementday

Portuguese		desfecho (pay office, upshot), desenredo, desenlace final, solução (burping, hard drink, health resort, key, liquor, remedy, resort, solution). (various references)

Romanian		deznodãmânt (catastrophe, issue, pay off, upshot). (various references)

Russian		завершение (accomplishment, closure, come off, completion, consummation, cope-stone, end, finishing, follow through, perfecting, rundown, termination), исход (conclusion, event, exit, exodus, issue, termination, upshot). (various references)

Serbo-Croatian		rasplet. (various references)

Spanish		desenlace (end, ending, outcome, payoff, solution). (various references)

Swedish		utgång (egress, egression, end, exit, expiration, expiry, issue, lapse, level, output, port, upshot, way out), upplösning (breakup, decomposition, disbandment, disintegration, disintergration, dismissal, dismission, disruption, dissociation, dissolution, fragmentation, raveling, resolution, resolving power, solution, unraveling, winding up). (various references)

Turkish		sonuç (aftermath, close, conclusion, consequence, consequent, corollary, decision, deduction, effect, end, event, finding, fruit, harvest, inference, issue, joy, outcome, payoff, produce, product, result, resultant, sequel, show, success, sum, upshot), son (afterbirth, bedrock, close, conclusion, conclusive, curtains, definitive, end, ending, expiration, expiry, extremity, farewell, fate, final, finis, finish, finishing, full, full stop, issue, kiss off, last, late, latest, latter, nth, Omega, outcome, quietus, recent, result, ruination, secundine, sunset, supreme, tail end, terminal, termination, ultimate, upshot), akıbet (aftermath, curtains, end, event, issue, outgrowth, result), çözüm (answer, healer, help, key, out, redress, remedy, resolution, shift, solution, way out). (various references)
Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references.

Language	Period	Translations
French	1500-Modern	denouement. (various references)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

Derivations
	Words beginning with "denouement": denouements. (additional references)
Misspellings
	"Denouement" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: deneoument, denonement, denouemant, denouemont, denouenent, denoument, denounement, denounment, denovement, denuement, enduement, enouement. (additional references)
Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references).

# of Phoneme Matches	Pronunciation	Word(s) rhyming with "denouement" (pronounced dā'nuw'mÄ"n)
3	-m Ä" n	rapprochement.
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits.

Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams
	Words within the letters "d-e-e-e-m-n-n-o-t-u"
	-3 letters: demeton, demount, endnote, eudemon, mounted, tenoned, unnoted.
	-4 letters: dement, demote, denote, donnee, emeute, emoted, meoued, neoned, omened, teemed, tendon, toneme, tunned, undone, unmeet.
	-5 letters: demon, donee, donne, donut, emend, emote, endue, etude, meted, monde, monte, mound, mount, muted, muton, neume, nomen, nonet, noted, notum, numen, odeum, outed, tenon, toned, tonne, tuned, undee, unmet.
	Words containing the letters "d-e-e-e-m-n-n-o-t-u"
	+1 letter: denouements.
	+2 letters: denouncement.
	+3 letters: denouncements.
	+4 letters: tremendousness.
	+5 letters: openmouthedness, underemployment.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro.