1. A conclusion or termination.
2. A concluding part; a finale: a happy ending.
3. Grammar. The final morpheme added to a word base to make an inflectional form, such as -ed in walked.

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.