metafictional.

Reflecting on or drawing attention to fiction as fiction.

Use it for

Words that belong together

• metafictional device
• metafictional passage

On the page

The metafictional passage drew attention to the construction of the story.

The device was metafictional because it questioned the narrator’s control of the invented account.

Usage notes

Primary category: literary / elevated general. Forms: Normally relational or categorical; comparison only where the particular property admits gradation. Legacy lexical fields mirror sense 1 only. Use numbered sense fields for all meanings. Established modern English lexical item. No separate regional spelling or grammatical inflection entry. Writing functions: artistic orientation, figurative interpretation, life writing, narrative knowledge. Disciplines: literary writing, literary analysis, advanced general English. Commonness: uncommon.