throughline

• through line
• through-line

From through (“passing from one side of something to the other”, adjective) +‎ line.^[1] Compare Middle English thurghline (“a brail or buntline”).

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈθɹuːlaɪn/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈθɹuˌlaɪn/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Hyphenation: through‧line

throughline (plural throughlines)

1. (narratology) 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. [from early 20th c.]
   • 2019 August 14, A. A. Dowd, “Good Boys Puts a Tween Spin on the R-rated Teen Comedy, to Mostly Funny Effect”, in The A.V. Club‎^[1], archived from the original on 4 March 2021:

     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 acceptance of the fact that childhood friendships, forged out of proximity and convenience, aren't always destined to last.

   • 2022 March 8, Zoe Williams, “Zelenskiy brings down the house with his speech to the Commons”, in The Guardian‎^[2]:

     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.

2. (rail transport) A railway route that passengers can take without needing to change trains. [from mid 19th c.]