narrative

Pluralnarratives

1. 1
   nouncountable or uncountable

   The substance of what is told: the content of a story or account.

   Readers complained that the narrative dragged in the middle chapters.

   The narrative grows tense as the two travelers near the border.

   Similarstory, plot, storyline

2. 2
   nouncountable

   A representation of events or a story shaped to promote a particular point of view.

   The campaign worked hard to control the narrative around the scandal.

   Rival newspapers offered competing narratives of the same protest.

   Similarstory, version, account, spin

   Note

   The word of politics and the press: here a narrative is an account with a side to it. Campaigns try to control or change the narrative, and one can be peddled, dominant or challenged by a rival. Without an article it names the contest itself, as when Chris McGreal wrote in 2023 of "the interminable battle over narrative" in the Israel-Palestine conflict.

3. 3
   nouncountable

   The orderly, step-by-step telling of an event or series of events.

   His calm narrative of the rescue helped investigators piece together the timeline.

   The memoir offers a detailed narrative of her years at sea.

   Similaraccount, story, chronicle, report, description

4. 4
   nouncountable or uncountable

   The way a story, whether fictional or real, is conveyed within a body of work.

   The author experiments with a fragmented narrative across the three sections.

   Documentary narrative often relies on interviews to carry the story forward.

   Similarstorytelling

   Note

   A writer's and critic's term that separates the telling from the events told. "The plot is full of holes, but the narrative is extremely compelling" makes sense only because plot is what happens and narrative is how it is delivered. Game studies uses the term too: Angus Slater (2015) describes Morrowind's players creating "their own narrative" within designed options.

5. 5
   adjective

   Telling a story; presenting connected events in the form of a story.

   She wrote a narrative account of the expedition rather than a dry report.

   The mural has a narrative quality, each panel pushing the tale forward.

   Note

   Behind the adjective is Latin narrātīvus, from narrō, "to narrate," which reached English by way of Middle French narratif and Middle Scots narrative. It is gradable (more narrative, most narrative), so a mural or a poem can be more or less given to storytelling. Keep it apart from the "relating to narration" sense. A narrative poem tells a story, while narrative structure belongs to the craft of telling.

6. 6
   adjective

   Relating to narration or to the act of telling a story.

   The professor analyzed the narrative structure of the epic poem.

   Narrative voice remains a central concern in the study of fiction.

   Note

   The relational adjective of criticism and theory sits before nouns like thrust, structure and voice. It can also stretch to people. Galen Strawson, reviewing Jerome Bruner's Making Stories in The Guardian (2004), describes some people as "intensely narrative, self-storying" in their sense of life and self. In that use it can even be graded, as "intensely" shows.

7. 7
   adjective

   Given to talking too much, especially at great length.

   Their narrative neighbor leaned over the fence and talked about the weather, his bad knee, and the price of gas until they made an excuse to go inside.

   The old captain was narrative to a fault and would talk to anyone within earshot.

   Similartalkative, garrulous, loquacious, chatty, voluble

   Oppositetaciturn, reticent, laconic

   Note

   The talk that comes with years: Alexander Pope, translating Homer's Iliad (1715–1720), calls an aged speaker "wise through time, and narrative with age." A reader today will almost certainly hear telling a story in the word instead. If you mean someone who talks too much, garrulous or talkative says it plainly and cannot be misread.

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