subtext

Etymology

Definitions

1. 1

   The implicit meaning of a text, often a literary one, or a speech or dialogue.

   • Everyone heard the announcement, but not everyone agrees on what the subtext was.
   • The word dick has meant penis since the 1890s, but Chester Gould’s private detective “Dick Tracy” has no puerile subtext related to this word.
   • While his major plays appear on the surface to have little plot, their subtext is full of overheated romance and melodrama.
2. 2

   To create or use a subtext.

   • All the participants used subtexting as an important viewing strategy of mainstream films. We are always looking for innuendoes and cues either with certain individual characters or between female characters.
   • Subtexting is the technique that every author needs to know in order to create dialogue that is rich in meaning while sounding natural, for in real life, this is the way people often converse.

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