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narration

UK/nəˈɹeɪ.ʃən/US/ˌnæɹˈeɪ.ʃən/
nounB2+Rare in speech; mostly a word you read · #12,179 of 15,258leans written

Other forms: narrations

Narration is the telling of a story, especially aloud over pictures. Documentary narration, record the narration, first-person narration.

In film it means the voice over the images, and the debate about whether it helps or admits defeat is as old as the medium. In literature it names the point of view a story is told from.

Definitions of narration

  1. 1nounnarrationThe telling of a story, especially aloud over pictures.B2+

    “The documentary's gentle narration made the film about bees a pleasure to watch.”

narration is a telling.

Where it comes from

Latin narratio comes from narrare, to tell, from gnarus, knowing.

  1. Proto-Indo-European

    *ǵneh₃-

  2. Latin

    narrātiō

  3. Old French

    narracion

  4. Middle French

    narration

  5. English, today

    narration

From Middle French narration, from Old French narracion, from Latin narrātiō. by surface analysis, narr- + -ate + -ion.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practise this word

narration in the wild

  • The only dialogue in the entire episode aside from Rod Serling's usual narration came from Douglas Heyes, the episode's director.

    The Invaders (The Twilight Zone)

  • Thus, narration includes both who tells the story and how the story is told (for example, by using stream of consciousness or unreliable narration).

    Narration

  • The narration (Bharata) of the history of Bharata kings by sage Vaisampayana to Kuru king Janamejaya is embedded within this narration of Ugrasravas Sauti.

    Ugrashravas

From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.