dénouement

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See also: denouement

English[edit]

English Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia

Alternative forms[edit]

Etymology[edit]

Unadapted borrowing from French dénouement (resolution, literally unknotting).

Pronunciation[edit]

Noun[edit]

dénouement (plural dénouements)

  1. (authorship, often figuratively) The conclusion or resolution of a plot; unravelling.
    • 1831, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XIX, in Romance and Reality. [], volume II, London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, [], →OCLC, page 271:
      Emily was a great favourite with him; and he had always viewed the attachment, at whose dénouement between her and Lorraine, Lady Mandeville meant to preside, as a somewhat foolish romance.
    • 2002, Michel Faber, The Crimson Petal and the White, Canongate Books (2010), page 830:
      At last this affair is moving towards the explosive dénouement he has been craving — the revelation, the release of tension, that will shake the universe in one fierce convulsion, and then allow everything to fall back into its rightful place, restored to normality!
    • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:dénouement.

Translations[edit]

French[edit]

French Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia fr

Alternative forms[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From dénouer (to unknot) +‎ -ment, from Middle French desnouement, from the Old French verb desnoer (to unknot) + -ment, from the noun neu (knot), itself from Latin nōdus.

Pronunciation[edit]

Noun[edit]

dénouement m (plural dénouements)

  1. outcome
  2. (theater) dénouement
  3. (finance) act of unwinding a position

Descendants[edit]

  • English: dénouement (learned)

Further reading[edit]