intertextuality

intertextuality noun: the idea that a given text is a response to what has already been written, be it explicit or implicit.

Noun

intertextuality (countable and uncountable, plural intertextualities)

The idea that a given text is a response to what has already been written, be it explicit or implicit.
- When one studies the intertextuality of "Hamlet", one realises that William Shakespeare must have read thousands of books.
- All of these issues—subjectivity, intertextuality, reference, ideology—underlie the problematized relations between history and fiction in postmodernism.1988, Linda Hutcheon, A Poetics of Postmodernism: History, Theory, Fiction, Routledge, →ISBN
The reference to another separate and distinct text within a text.

references among texts: تَنَاص tanāṣ, تَعالُق النَّصِّي taʕāluq an-naṣṣī
the idea that a given text is a response to what has already been written: تَنَاص tanāṣ, تَعالُق النَّصِّي taʕāluq an-naṣṣī

plural	intertextualities

Borrowed from French intertextualité.

What does intertextuality mean?: Intertextuality means the idea that a given text is a response to what has already been written, be it explicit or implicit.
What is intertextuality in Arabic?: Intertextuality in Arabic is تَنَاص (tanāṣ), تَعالُق النَّصِّي (taʕāluq an-naṣṣī). See Intertextuality meaning in Arabic.
What part of speech is intertextuality?: Intertextuality is a noun.
What is the plural of intertextuality?: The plural of intertextuality is intertextualities.

Adapted from Wiktionary: intertextuality (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.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

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