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.
As a longtime storyteller, he also savored the primacy of narrative within the stories — particularly the frame story.
From New York Times • May 12, 2022
In a frame story, all of this is recounted in Los Angeles by Claude, in 1962, to a film-history doctoral student, Martin Embry, who wants to restore the Frenchman’s singular achievement.
From Washington Post • Jun. 10, 2019
Take, for instance, The Princess Bride’s frame story, which in the movie features a grandfather reading the fable to a sick little boy who would rather be playing video games.
From Slate • Nov. 21, 2018
As the frame story suggests, The Princess Bride was expressly designed for families to share.
From The Verge • Nov. 21, 2018
Italian writer Giovanni Boccaccio also set his great work, The Decameron, within a frame story in 1335.
From Textbooks • Jan. 1, 2012
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.
