Word.ws English Dictionary

in media res

in media res is the nonstandard form of in medias res.

Meaning of in medias res

Noun

in medias res (uncountable)

  1. Narrative presented in medias res.
    • Anyway, the characters have been introduced but by no means established. I know Final Fantasy’s always been big on in medias res, but even the most basic questions about the plot remain unanswered. Who the fuck are these people? What is going on? Why should I care? Can I stop playing now? Please?2010 (March 31ˢᵗ, 5:00pm): Ben “Yahtzee” Croshaw, “Final Fantasy XIII” reviewed by Zero Punctuation, 2:03–2:16

See all 3 meanings of in medias res

Origin of in media res

In medias res, by conflation of Latin mediās with the more common English word media.

Questions about in media res

What is in media res the nonstandard form of?
In media res is the nonstandard form of in medias res.

Words near in media res in the dictionary

  1. in love with
  2. in malam partem
  3. in mass
  4. in mean time
  5. in meantime
  6. in media res
  7. in medias res
  8. in memoriam
  9. in memoriams
  10. in memorium
  11. in memory of

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: in media res (page history and authors); in medias res (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “in media res.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/in_media_res. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.