n.

1. Music. The concluding passage of a movement or composition.
2. A conclusion or closing part of a statement.

[Italian, from Latin cauda, tail.]

Coda, from a Latin word meaning "tail," refers not only to the conclusion of a musical composition but also to an ending in general. The New York Times pessimistically sees the current Israel-Hezbollah conflict as a coda in more than one sense:

"If this war ends for Israel as badly as it has started — it intensified last week after a hiccup of an Israeli ceasefire — it could well mean not only the end of Mr. Olmert's political career but a harsh coda to Mr. Sharon's life's work."

Link: Sharon Set the Stage His Heir Reacts On - New York Times

Posted August 7, 2006.

See our Word Overheard blog to see interesting uses of strange words.

(1) A distributed file system developed at Carnegie Mellon University in the late 1980s. Evolving from the Andrews File System, Coda is noted for its ability to withstand network failures. See AFS.

(2) A software company based in the U.K. that produces accounting software for mainframes, VAX and client/server environments. The parent company is the Coda Group, Plc. with U.S. offices in Manchester, NH.

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(It.)

‘Tail’: the last part of a piece or melody; an addition to a standard form or design. In fugue the coda is anything occurring after the last entry of the subject, in sonata form anything coming after the recapitulation.

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An ending to a piece of music, standing outside the formal structure of the piece. Coda is the Italian word for “tail.”

IN BRIEF: n. - The closing section of a musical composition.

Tutor's tip: A "coda" is a summarizing part that is somehow separate from the whole, a "code" is a set of symbols, while a "coed" is either a female student or a term that indicates a school has both make and female students.

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Dansk (Danish)
n. - afslutning

Nederlands (Dutch)
coda (muziek/ballet), laatste deel

Français (French)
n. - épilogue, (Mus) coda

Deutsch (German)
n. - (Mus.) Koda

Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - (μουσ.) κόντα

Italiano (Italian)
coda

Português (Portuguese)
n. - coda (f) (Mús.)

Русский (Russian)
кода

Español (Spanish)
n. - coda

Svenska (Swedish)
n. - coda (mus.), slutvinjett (bildl.)

中文（简体） (Chinese (Simplified))
终结句, 完结部, 乐章结尾部

中文（繁體） (Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 終結句, 完結部, 樂章結尾部

한국어 (Korean)
n. - 코다, 문예 작품의 종결부, 피날레

日本語 (Japanese)
n. - 結尾, 尾連

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(الاسم) نهايه مقطوعه موسيقيه‏

עברית (Hebrew)
n. - ‮יסף (במוסיקה), קטע הסיום של בלט, אירוע או סדרת אירועים אחרונה‬

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Coda Music