metahistory

M3E1T1A1H4I1S1T1O1R1Y4

noun

The history of history itself.

Scrabble 19

Meanings

nounmetahistory (countable and uncountable, plural metahistories)

plural metahistories

  1. countableuncountableThe history of history itself.

    It’s also a mega-depressing example of manufactured meta-history, where the slaughter of thirteen people was obscured by the need to impose a cogent narrative upon a scenario that had no cogent explanation.

    2022, Chuck Klosterman, The Nineties, New York: Penguin Press, →ISBN
    1 more example

    The fundamental perspective for conceiving “metahistory” can be found in largely German thinkers. The German historicism of Herder, followed by that of Kant—who took issue with Herder's “metahistorical” interpretations, and then Kant's own students who deepened the evidence for the generational history that is the foundation for “metahistory,” Friedrich Schleiermacher, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Leopold von Ranke and finally Friedrich Meinecke.

    2021, Mark E. Blum, The Metahistory of Western Knowledge in the Modern Era, Anthem Press, →ISBN, page 3

Origin

Cite this entry
APA

metahistory. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/metahistory

MLA

“metahistory.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/metahistory. Accessed November 4, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “metahistory,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/metahistory.

Source: metahistory on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.