ending
noun
Simple meaning
The end of a word.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
ehndingSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈɛndɪŋ
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
grammar
The end of a word (a suffix or inflectional ending or final morpheme)
“I don't like words that have -ism as an ending.”
The last part of something.
grammar
The last morpheme of a word, added to some base to make an inflected form (such as -s in "dogs").
A termination or conclusion.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- A1 · Beginner (estimated)
- Frequency
- Very Common
- Typical Use
- Everyday English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: The end of a word (a suffix or inflectional ending or final morpheme)
Used this way, ending is a specialist word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. This is a grammar or language-study use: it describes how language works, so it appears in teaching and reference writing.
“I don't like words that have -ism as an ending.”
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Specialist/technical
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Specialized
- Connotation
- Clinical and technical
- Usage feel
- Technical and specialized
Where it naturally appears
- Academic writing
- Education/classroom
- Technical/specialist writing
Usage note
In general conversation this sense usually needs explaining — outside its field, people reach for a plainer word.
Nearby words
- suffix , a specialist term, precise but narrower
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use ending
- “I don't like words that have -ism as an ending.”noun
- “His death marked the ending of an era.”noun
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Similar Words, What’s the Difference?
Close in meaning, but not always interchangeable.
An end or conclusion.
An end in time; a conclusion.
The end or conclusion of something.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
The terminal structure of an axon that does not end at a synapse.
The act or manner of terminating a musical phrase or tone.
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.