postlude
/ˈpəʊstluːd/
"postlude" is a 8-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“postlude” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 8
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - The final part of a piece; especially music played (normally on the organ) at the end of a church service.
Corpus desk
Index EN-postlude · postlude · English
postlude · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-LONG 8 letters
- VOW-3 3 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "P" thin
- PHOTO-UNK Peer pending
Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | postlude |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈpəʊstluːd/ |
| Letters | 8 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “postlude” in English
Rare enough to double-check
postlude is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun, transcribed /ˈpəʊstluːd/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
Zero misspellings are on record for postlude in our index, suggesting the orthography follows predictable English patterns. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.
Etymologically, the entry records: From post- + Latin lūdus (“play”) (modelled on prelude). The correct English form is postlude, spelled P-O-S-T-L-U-D-E.
Definition
- 1The final part of a piece; especially music played (normally on the organ) at the end of a church service.
- 2A concluding passage of text or speech; an epilogue or afterword.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how postlude appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
In the Sibelian world of song, then, postludes would inevitably sound redundant or extraneous.
This was Nabokov’s postlude to Lolita, where he relates the book’s genesis.
Etymology
From post- + Latin lūdus (“play”) (modelled on prelude).
This word in other languages
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.