through line

noun

variants or throughline

ˈthrü-ˌlīn 

or less commonly through-line

: a common or consistent element or theme shared by items in a series or by parts of a whole

But Kent's latest nonetheless reveals a fascinating through line in her work, which centers on, as she puts it, "disrespect for the feminine"—and the inciting power of female rage.

—Rachel Handler

Vang was born in a refugee camp in Thailand, and came to the United States in the late 1980s. For him and his family, food was the throughline keeping them connected to their culture, wherever they were.

—Sharyn Jackson

Perverse moments like these are a throughline in Decker's work. The Texas native specializes in "bad" desires—awkward wants that tend to go unexpressed, or which otherwise seem too compromising to confess even to oneself.

—K. Austin Collins

Unlike Tokyo's great shopping thoroughfares, which have a certain logical through-line (if not aesthetic, at least socioeconomic), Osaka's arcades are mismatched, high-low jumbles of retail diversions.

—Simon Dumenco

Examples of through line in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

For starters, baseball is a sport steeped in history and tradition, and for more than a century the AL and NL have served as the through line connecting generations of baseball greatness. —Mac Cerullo, Boston Herald, 7 Sep. 2025

Permeating through all of her pursuits is a through line of change, possibility, and hope. —Britt Julious, Chicago Tribune, 4 Sep. 2025

Project to project, the two endeavor to build conceptual through lines, referencing past successes without resting on repeats. —Sam Cochran, Architectural Digest, 3 Sep. 2025

And there will be certain elements, just like with Flow, where the production process and the state of mind of the director kind of resemble the plot line and the emotional through line of the film. —Georg Szalai, HollywoodReporter, 26 Aug. 2025

Word History

First Known Use

1936, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for through line

• affine
• airline
• align
• aline
• assign
• baseline
• beamline
• benign
• bloodline
• bovine
• byline
• canine