saga

American  

[sah-guh] / ˈsɑ gə /

noun

sagas plural

1. a medieval Icelandic or Norse prose narrative of achievements and events in the history of a personage, family, etc.

2. any narrative or legend of heroic exploits.

   Synonyms:

   history, tale, epic

3. Also called saga novel.  a form of the novel in which the members or generations of a family or social group are chronicled in a long and leisurely narrative.

4. a dramatic history of a group, place, industry, etc..

   the saga of the transcontinental railroad.

5. any very long story with dramatic events or parts.

   the sad saga of her life in poverty.

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saga British  

/ ˈsɑːɡə /

noun

1. any of several medieval prose narratives written in Iceland and recounting the exploits of a hero or a family

2. any similar heroic narrative

3. Also called: saga novel.  a series of novels about several generations or members of a family

4. any other artistic production said to resemble a saga

5. informal a series of events or a story stretching over a long period

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• sagas
  plural

Etymology

Origin of saga

First recorded in 1700–10; from Old Norse: literally, “story, narrative, history”; cognate with saw ³

Explanation

When your friend tells you every detail of how she tripped over a rock, broke her ankle, and then got into a car accident on the way to the hospital, she is sharing a long, involved story known as a saga. The word saga has its origins in the Middle Ages. In those days, a saga was an historical tale of the first families who lived in Norway or Iceland. Today the word is used to describe a very complicated or detailed series of events. A saga is the kind of long, drawn-out story that can cause the people who hear it to roll their eyes in boredom.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

saga sagas

“The Odyssey” is a saga with half a dozen detours and one destination, Ithaca, Odysseus’ kingdom.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 15, 2026

Notably, nobody in this saga has claimed the reporting is false.

From Salon ● Jul. 15, 2026

The move "gatecrashed" an earlier £5.5bn agreement between EasyJet and US private credit group Castlelake, marking what the paper calls "the latest episode in a protracted takeover saga".

From BBC ● Jul. 10, 2026

The red card saga quickly generated viral internet memes.

From Barron's ● Jul. 6, 2026

Peru, Dobyns learned, was one of the world’s cultural wellsprings, a place as important to the human saga as the Fertile Crescent.

From "1491" by Charles C. Mann

Whether in the films beloved by the Wu-Tang or the animated sagas Megan favors, characters battle not simply for survival but to achieve mastery.

From Salon ● May 31, 2026

Blanchet argued that today's resurgence in beloved pop-culture sagas is part of the "routine functioning" of the industry, rather than representing any kind of "renewal".

From Barron's ● May 26, 2026

Chapter by chapter, the author intertwines the sagas of both sets of grandparents.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 7, 2026

That being said, Jacir’s fourth feature — packed as it is with storylines — could stand a bit more context and fewer of the expositional traps that big-cast sagas easily fall into.

From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 27, 2026

He mixed in various plot lines from Austrian, Norwegian and German sagas, and set about moulding them into a coherent dramatic whole.

From "The Story of Music" by Howard Goodall