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

Fitting to an event called the Warrior Awards, advocacy and fighting for a more just music business was the through line of much of the night. —Ethan Millman, HollywoodReporter, 13 Oct. 2025

That was a through line in the murders over the past year of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, Turning Point USA co-founder Charlie Kirk, and two detainees at Immigration and Customs Enforcement‘s Dallas Field Office, in an attack seemingly aimed at federal agents. —John Scott Lewinski, The Washington Examiner, 10 Oct. 2025

Dratch also continued to giggle through lines for the rest of the sketch, and her occasional pauses to get her bearings were met with joyous applause from the SNL audience. —Wesley Stenzel, Entertainment Weekly, 10 Oct. 2025

But the through line in all of her content is using her personality to get people to think more about ALS. —Ct Jones, Rolling Stone, 9 Oct. 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