Meanings
plural diegeses
- human sciencesA narration or recitation.
A novel like Sterne′s Tristram Shandy, however, simply embeds a number of different diegeses on the play-within-a-play model.
1985, Bill Nichols, Movies and Methods: An Anthology, page 5042 more examples
The standard distinction between mimesis and diegesis is usually referred to as that between showing and telling, between iconic and indexical signs on the one hand and symbolic signs on the other, between drama and recitation.
1991, Christopher Collins, The Poetics of the Mind's Eye: Literature and the Psychology of Imagination, page 4Extradiegetic music is a matter of pure convention. It constitutes an exception within Hollywood classical cinema, in which everything is to belong to diegesis in order to elaborate a fictive, realistic universe.
2004, Sarah Hatchuel, Shakespeare: From Stage to Screen, page 89
Origin
- Ancient Greekδιήγησις“narration”
- Englishdiegesis
Ancient Greek διήγησις (diḗgēsis, “narration”), from διηγέομαι (diēgéomai, “I narrate”)
More words from Ancient Greek
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Polish diegeza
- diegezaTranslations
Rhymes & wordplay
Rhymes with diegesis
Cite this entry
diegesis. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/diegesis
“diegesis.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/diegesis. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “diegesis,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/diegesis.
Source: diegesis on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.