Word.ws English Dictionary

metanarrative

metanarrative noun: a narrative which concerns narratives of historical meaning, experience or knowledge and offers legitimation of such through the anticipated completion of some master idea; a grand story that is self-legitimizing.

Noun

metanarrative (plural metanarratives)

  1. A narrative which concerns narratives of historical meaning, experience or knowledge and offers legitimation of such through the anticipated completion of some master idea; a grand story that is self-legitimizing.
    • The narratives are important in themselves as significant pieces of the metanarrative of suspicion in which activist politics have been embedded since the McCarthy era (with roots much earlier).2004, Sandra Baringer, The Metanarrative of Suspicion in Late Twentieth-Century America, Taylor & Francis (Routledge), page 18
    • Even the richest metanarratives of finitude cannot ultimately explain themselves, for they have no way to synoptically do so: a larger metanarrative, one rooted in the metaphysical, is required.2009, William E. Marsh, Nothingness, Metanarrative, and Possibility, AuthorHouse, page 199
    Synonyms:
    grand narrative

Adjective

metanarrative (not comparable)

  1. Of or relating to a metanarrative.

metanarrative meaning in Vietnamese

metanarrative in Vietnamese

narrative about narratives of historical meaning, experience or knowledge
siêu tự sự, đại tự sự

Synonyms of metanarrative

Forms of metanarrative

pluralmetanarratives
alternative formmeta-narrative

Origin of metanarrative

From meta- (“transcending; of a level above”) + narrative (“recitation of a story”).

Words formed from metanarrative

Questions about metanarrative

What does metanarrative mean?
Metanarrative means a narrative which concerns narratives of historical meaning, experience or knowledge and offers legitimation of such through the anticipated completion of some master idea; a grand story that is self-legitimizing.
What is metanarrative in Vietnamese?
Metanarrative in Vietnamese is siêu tự sự, đại tự sự. See Metanarrative meaning in Vietnamese.
What part of speech is metanarrative?
Metanarrative can be a noun or an adjective.
What is the plural of metanarrative?
The plural of metanarrative is metanarratives.

Words near metanarrative in the dictionary

  1. metanalyzed
  2. metanalyzes
  3. metanalyzing
  4. metanarration
  5. metanarrations
  6. metanarrative
  7. metanarratively
  8. metanarratives
  9. metanatrolite
  10. metanatural
  11. metanaupliar

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: metanarrative (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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