coda

Etymology 1

Borrowed from Italian coda (literally “tail”), from Latin cauda.

noun

1. (music) A passage that brings a movement or piece to a conclusion through prolongation.
2. (phonology) The optional final part of a syllable, placed after its nucleus, and usually composed of one or more consonants.
   Holonym: syllable
   The word “salts” has three consonants — /l/, /t/, and /s/ — in its coda, whereas the word “glee” has no coda at all.
3. (geology) In seismograms, the gradual return to baseline after a seismic event. The length of the coda can be used to estimate event magnitude, and the shape sometimes reveals details of subsurface structures.
4. (figurative) A conclusion (of a statement or event, for example), final portion, tail end.
   2014, Paul Salopek, Blessed. Cursed. Claimed., National Geographic (December 2014)https://web.archive.org/web/20150212214621/http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2014/12/pilgrim-roads/salopek-text In gray stormy light, their painted eyes stare out at the Mediterranean—at Homer’s wine-dark sea, at a corridor into modernity. But in memory my walk’s true coda in the Middle East came earlier.
   Redundancies accounted for a smaller proportion of the change, although no less significant to those affected. Rail News, BR's staff magazine, included a coda to its August 1964 assessment of the Beeching cuts: "For the individuals involved it is a worrying time … Rail News feels deeply for those affected and expresses the sympathy of its readers with them." March 22 2023, Mike Esbester, “Staff, the public and industry will suffer”, in RAIL, number 979, page 39

Etymology 2

noun

1. Alternative spelling of CODA