metanarrative
Britishnoun
Etymology
Origin of metanarrative
C20: from meta- + narrative
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 effect of the metanarrative is to juxtapose Byron’s violent passions with the careful, repressed behavior of one who hoped to capture him in literature.
From The Wall Street Journal • Dec. 26, 2025
It’s not fan service like Taylor Swift’s Easter eggs, but it reflects an understanding that for many listeners, and perhaps especially for those who may not bother to listen at all, the metanarrative matters.
From New York Times • Nov. 8, 2022
Inscryption is a deck-building card-battling roguelike but with a fantastically dark and mysterious metanarrative that elevates it from “interesting” to “utterly engrossing.”
From The Verge • Jun. 23, 2022
But the show’s own metanarrative also fetishizes harmony and feminine solidarity.
From Slate • Apr. 5, 2019
All of this falls under the metanarrative of an attack on collectivism.
From Salon • Feb. 4, 2016
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.
