endword

Endword is a term used in linguistics and computer science to denote a boundary element that marks the conclusion of a word, utterance, or data sequence. Depending on context, an endword may be a lexical item, a designated ending morpheme, or a token in a computational model that signals termination. The concept helps separate core content from boundary information in analysis and processing.

In linguistics and discourse analysis, an endword can refer to the final word of an utterance or segment. It can influence perceived completeness, emphasis, or stance, and may interact with prosody and intonation. Scholars use the notion to describe how speakers signal closure or transitions between topics, though the term is not uniformly standardized.

In computing and natural-language processing, an endword describes a terminator token or boundary marker that marks the end of a sequence. Endwords enable models to determine when to stop generation or parsing. In practice, endwords are often explicit tokens such as an end-of-sequence marker, distinct from punctuation that ends a sentence.

The term is etymologically simple: end plus word. Its precise meaning varies by discipline and application. Common alternatives include terminator, end-of-sequence token, and boundary word. See also end-of-sentence, tokenization, terminator, and boundary token.