frame story
Americannoun
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a secondary story or stories embedded in the main story.
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a narrative providing the framework for connecting a series of otherwise unrelated stories.
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a literary device that uses such a narrative structure.
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
The metafictional frame story of the novel is very different from the movie; it’s about a screenwriter, his failing marriage and his distant son.
From Washington Post ● Apr. 2, 2022
In the movie’s frame story, one character mimes while wearing angel wings clearly inspired by Wim Wenders’s “Wings of Desire,” a Berlin movie infinitely preferable to this one.
From New York Times ● Feb. 7, 2019
A frame story has the tween protagonist recording a vlog about his experiences in fighting the alien invasion, then posting it online with the hashtag #RESIST.
From The Verge ● Jan. 16, 2018
The tradition of using a frame story dates back to at least 200 B.C., when the ancient Indian fables of the Panchatantra were collected.
From Textbooks ● Jan. 1, 2012
The Sean Penn-in-a-skyscraper frame story overstayed its welcome, and I’m still not entirely sure what that inter-dinosaur drama was all about.
From Slate ● Dec. 14, 2011
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
