throughline

In full through line of action: a theme that runs through the plot of a book, film, or other narrative work, or a series of such related works.

Noun

  1. In full through line of action: a theme that runs through the plot of a book, film, or other narrative work, or a series of such related works.
    • Produced by none other than Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, Good Boys again most closely resembles a kind of junior-varsity tryout for that duo's Superbad, down to its modestly affecting emotional through-line: an...
    • The Russian rockets fell on Babyn Yar, 80 years after the Nazi atrocities it commemorates; Zelenskiy’s face was enough to hammer home the gravity of the thematic throughline. - 2022 March 8, Zoe Williams, “Zelenskiy...
  2. A railway route that passengers can take without needing to change trains.

Origin

From through (“passing from one side of something to the other”, adjective) + line. Compare Middle English thurghline (“a brail or buntline”).

Forms

throughlines through line through-line