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Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

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

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

  1. n. In music: The tail or stem of a note.
  2. n. A passage added to a composition for the purpose of bringing it to a complete close: it is especially important in works that are constructed in canon, rondo, or sonata form.

Wiktionary

  1. n. A passage which brings a movement or piece to a conclusion through prolongation.
  2. n. The optional final part of a syllable, placed after its nucleus, and usually composed of one or more consonants.
  3. n. 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. n. The conclusion of a statement.
  5. n. alternative spelling of CODA.

GNU Webster's 1913

  1. n. A few measures added beyond the natural termination of a composition.

WordNet 3.0

  1. n. the closing section of a musical composition

Etymologies

  1. Italian, from Latin cauda, tail.

Examples

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Comments

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  • chained_bear "Females tend to employ a Morse code-like series of clicks, known as a coda, and male sperm whales make slower, louder clicks called clangs."
    --Nathaniel Philbrick, In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex, 87 May 1, 2008

‘coda’ has been looked up 2810 times, loved by 4 people, added to 42 lists, commented on 2 times, and has a Scrabble score of 7.