narration

American  

[na-rey-shuhn] / næˈreɪ ʃən /

noun

• narrations
  plural

1. something narrated; an account, story, or narrative.

2. the act or process of narrating.

3. a recital of events, especially in chronological order, as the story narrated in a poem or the exposition in a drama.

4. Rhetoric. (in classical speech) the third part, the exposition of the question.

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narration British  

/ nəˈreɪʃən /

noun

1. the act or process of narrating

2. a narrated account or story; narrative

3. (in traditional rhetoric) the third step in making a speech, the putting forward of the question

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narration Cultural  

1. The recounting of an event or series of events; the act of telling a story.

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• nonnarration
  noun
• narrational
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• narrations
  plural

Etymology

Origin of narration

First recorded in 1400–50; late Middle English, from Latin narrātiōn-, stem of narrātiō “narrative, story”; equivalent to narrate + -ion

Explanation

Narration is the act of telling a story, usually in some kind of chronological order. Making up a scary ghost story and relating it around a camp fire is an act of narration. Narration generally means any kind of explaining or telling of something. It is usually used in reference to storytelling. If you've ever watched a television show where one character's voice talks directly to the audience, then you've heard narration. You will often find narration happening in songs where the singer is telling the story of how something happened — like the day he lost his guitar, his truck, his wife, and started singing the blues.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

narration narrations

María’s narration is marked by Colombian slang and the rhythms of its dialect, but it is also mixed with references to Hitchcock films and theories about Rolling Stone Brian Jones’s 1969 death.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 21, 2026

"His captivated, always improvised narration made that show the platonic ideal of natural history for me, and introduced a whole generation to the fascination of birds."

From BBC ● Jul. 27, 2026

Aviv’s journalistic method leans on the idea of unreliable narration.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 8, 2026

Travolta’s narration hints at the realizations that come later, when age and education help shine new light onto the shadowy parts of the past.

From Salon ● Jun. 2, 2026

Widget ceases his narration as they investigate each silver bar, finding no hidden openings or cleverly disguised hinges.

From "The Night Circus" by Erin Morgenstern

The chapters alternate between Aubrey’s and Lindsey’s narrations and their voices are so similar that it is easy to mix them up; also, the androgynous character names raise the possibility of gender confusion.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 4, 2026

Mission San Juan Capistrano was mostly empty as I walked in with a map and a handheld speaker that played short, recorded narrations.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 4, 2026

His intention is to make the videos more interesting than just narrations paired with videos of a gamer using the interface, he said.

From New York Times ● Oct. 9, 2022

The whole Brandstetter series has recently been reissued both in print and in audio, with great matter-of-fact narrations by Keith Szarabajka, whose deep, gravelly voice perfectly suits Hansen’s crisp, hard-boiled banter.

From Seattle Times ● Jun. 10, 2022

He loves Joan Rivers and never misses her annual red-carpet narrations leading up to the Academy Awards telecasts.

From "Drama High" by Michael Sokolove

Related Words

• anecdote
• narrative
• tale
• voice-over