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Film & Television vocabulary · Genres and Storytelling

Plot

Meaning in film & television, with examples

/plɒt/nounCore term

In film & television, plot means: The series of connected events that make up the story of a film or series, and the order in which they are shown.

In Turkish: olay örgüsü, konu, hikaye

How it is used

Critics and audiences say a plot is simple, complex, thin, predictable or full of holes. A plot hole is a logical mistake in the story; a subplot is a smaller, secondary storyline. Synopsis and logline are short summaries of the plot.

Example sentences

  1. The plot is simple: two brothers drive their father's body back to their village.

  2. Critics liked the actors but said the plot had too many holes.

Common collocations

  • plot twist
  • plot hole
  • subplot
  • main plot
  • thin plot
  • plot twistA sudden, unexpected development in a story that changes how the audience understands what has happened.
  • character arcThe inner change a character goes through during a story, from who they are at the beginning to who they become at the end.
  • flashbackA scene that interrupts the present action of a story to show events that happened earlier.
  • screenplayThe written plan of a film in a standard format, with scene headings, descriptions of action, character names and dialogue.

This word in other fields

The same English word can have a different meaning in another field:

More terms: Genres and Storytelling

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