Definition of narrative
1 : something that is narrated : story, account He is writing a detailed narrative of his life on the island.
2 : the art or practice of narration … depended not on narrative but on intensity derived from the verity to make the book jump. — Stanley Kauffmann
3 : the representation in art of an event or story; also : an example of such a representation the narrative of St. Joan of Arc
narrative
adjectivenarratively
adverbFrom the M-W Editors
Examples of narrative in a Sentence
He is writing a detailed narrative of his life on the island.
People have questioned the accuracy of his narrative.
Recent Examples of narrative from the Web
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Grann’s expertly crafted narrative begins in the 1870s, when the Osage were driven off their land in southeastern Kansas and relocated to a seemingly even more worthless plot in northeastern Oklahoma.
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Newspaper accounts in the U.S. talked about the growing unrest south of the border, and the museum explains in an easy-to-understand narrative how elite to middle-class political leaders joined efforts to remove Diaz.
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Turbulence has replaced the traditional American narrative of steady financial progress over a lifetime.
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The author elects to tell the story in first person present tense, a choice that adds a choppy, staccato feel to things and also underlines some of the narrative discontinuities that creep into the text along the way.
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The monuments in New Orleans, relocated to warehouses or holding stations and gone from view, are now the subjects of a new time, new imperatives, indeed even alternative victory narratives.
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On numerous occasions, TigerSwan agents stressed the need to change the public narrative established by protestors and to swing public support in favor of the pipeline.
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What worked in Gianforte’s favor was the narrative, immediately adopted on conservative media, that the attack was in some way fair.
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That half of your audience does not place value on reading a narrative-style document and, instead, plows right into the meat of the resume.
These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'narrative'. Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
1567
First Known Use of narrative
1567
Other Literature Terms
NARRATIVE Defined for English Language Learners
narrative
playDefinition of narrative for English Language Learners
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: a story that is told or written
NARRATIVE Defined for Kids
Definition of narrative for Students
: something (as a story) that is told in full detail
Definition of narrative for Students
: having the form of a story a narrative poem
Learn More about narrative
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Thesaurus: All synonyms and antonyms for narrative Spanish Central: Translation of narrative Nglish: Translation of narrative for Spanish speakers Britannica English: Translation of narrative for Arabic speakers Britannica.com: Encyclopedia article about narrative
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