Definition of "dénouement"

dénouement

/deˈnuːmɑ̃/

noun
plural dénouements
1. (authorship, often figuratively) The conclusion or resolution of a plot; unravelling.
  Quotations
  Emily was a great favourite with him; and he had always viewed the attachment, at whose dénouement between her and Lorraine, Lady Mandeville meant to preside, as a somewhat foolish romance.
  1831, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XIX, in Romance and Reality. […], volume II, London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, […], page 271
  At last this affair is moving towards the explosive dénouement he has been craving — the revelation, the release of tension, that will shake the universe in one fierce convulsion, and then allow everything to fall back into its rightful place, restored to normality!
  2002, Michel Faber, The Crimson Petal and the White, Canongate Books (2010), page 830