Storyline
nounThe plot or sequence of events that runs through a film, novel, play, or other narrative.
How to spell storyline
9 letters · 3 syllables
How to pronounce storyline
Say the part in capitals loudest.
What does storyline mean?
- nounThe plot or sequence of events that runs through a film, novel, play, or other narrative.
Storyline in a sentence
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The film had a gripping storyline that kept the audience guessing.
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Editors asked the author to tighten the storyline before publication.
Where does storyline come from?
Language of origin: Latin
This is a compound of two everyday English words, 'story' and 'line', that came together only in the twentieth century as the entertainment industries grew. 'Story' arrived in Middle English through Old French 'estorie' from the Latin 'historia', meaning an account of events or an inquiry; over time it narrowed to mean a narrative or tale. 'Line', from the Latin 'linea' meaning a linen thread or a string stretched straight, came to suggest a continuous thread or sequence. Joined together, 'storyline' captures the idea of the thread of a narrative running through a film, novel, or play, and it became common in scriptwriting and publishing from roughly the 1940s onward. The spelling trap is simply remembering that it is written as one solid word rather than two, with no space and no hyphen.
How the word is built
- story (narrative account)
- line (sequence, thread)
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