All words

exposition

Meaning

An introductory section of a literary work or discourse that provides essential background details.

Examples by difficulty

Basic: Simple, everyday vocabulary — the easiest to read.

The story began with a long exposition. It felt slow, but I needed to understand where the characters came from. They explained their past hurts and why they were even on this quest. Without it, nothing else would make sense later.

The dusty scroll felt fragile. Before deciphering the runes, we needed the exposition, the vital details about the lost city's builders and their strange rituals. Without it, the entire translation would be just gibberish, a meaningless string of symbols.

The worn map, creased and stained, served as the exposition for our desperate trek. Before us lay the Salt Flats, an unforgiving expanse where whispers of lost settlements clung to the air. We needed every scrap of that old adventurer's journal to survive the brutal beauty of this forgotten land.

The book began with a really long exposition about a grumpy knight who loved cheese. He lived in a dusty castle filled with squeaky furniture and one very bored dragon. This part explained how he got so grumpy, which, turns out, was mostly due to his neighbor's loud lute playing.

The old wizard scratched his beard, which was actually a tangled mess of glow worms. "So, before we discuss the tactical deployment of sentient sourdough starters against the rogue garden gnomes," he began, his voice a gravelly rumble, "allow me a brief exposition on the origins of their yeasty rebellion. It all started with a misplaced baguette..."

Normal: Standard, everyday language.

The first few pages were a dense exposition, laying out the kingdom's long history of conflict. It felt like a chore, but understanding the old grudges was crucial to grasping why the king was so desperate for peace now.

The dusty parchment unfurled, its ancient script the first exposition. We needed to grasp the lineage of the Sunken City's hydro-engineers, the crucial details of their algae-powered filtration systems, before diving into the present crisis. Without that knowledge, the current plumbing disaster made no sense.

The weathered farmer squinted at the cloudless sky, a knot tightening in his stomach. The old man beside him, his grandfather, began the familiar exposition, recounting decades of drought and the desperate measures taken when the wells ran dry. He needed to understand this land's history to have any hope of saving it.

The knight, Sir Reginald, surveyed the dragon's lair, his mind racing. The ensuing exposition, a delightful string of his king's questionable life choices and his own embarrassing childhood mishaps, was frankly more terrifying than the fire-breathing beast. He just hoped the dragon wasn't a stickler for historical accuracy.

The old space wizard's *exposition* at the Galactic Bake-Off began with a lengthy description of how he’d accidentally invented flavor-blasting frosting while trying to weaponize a croissant. Apparently, the key ingredient was a rare space slug's tear, which, predictably, had a powerful kick.

Advanced: Richer vocabulary that stretches an upper-level reader.

The film’s slow start, what the director called the exposition, felt a bit tedious. We learned about the characters' histories and the troubled world they inhabited, all before the actual conflict began. It was necessary groundwork, I suppose.

The archaeologists poured over the brittle scrolls, their faces grim. This early exposition, detailing the rituals of a long-vanished desert cult, was crucial. Without understanding their sacrifices, the recent cave paintings made no sense, leaving them in dangerous ignorance.

The grizzled captain, his face a map of countless voyages, began the crew's briefing. His voice, rough as salt-worn ropes, set the scene. This initial exposition, a necessary recounting of the previous failed expedition and the stark warnings about the phosphorescent reef, grounded them all before the perilous journey ahead.

Before diving into the dragon's hoard, the wizard spent a rather lengthy exposition detailing how he'd accidentally invented toast that argued back. He’d hoped this prelude would elicit sympathy, not just bewildered stares from his adventuring companions, who were more concerned with the imminent fiery demise.

The wizard’s initial exposition, a particularly verbose chapter detailing the proper fermentation process for fermented bog slime, was crucial. Without it, our intrepid heroes, armed only with sputtering enthusiasm and mismatched socks, would have remained blissfully ignorant of the fact that a potent, glowing potion required precisely three months of microbial mastication.

Challenging: Rare, high-register vocabulary for serious word lovers.

The initial exposition was a stark landscape of betrayal and unresolved animosity. Through terse dialogue and grim recollections, the author meticulously laid the groundwork, illuminating the profound schisms that festered, ensuring we understood the genesis of the protagonist's grim resolve before the inevitable confrontation.

The initial exposition laid bare the grim realities of the xenomorphic bio-plague on Kepler-186f. Before the arduous evacuation, we were shown the visceral decay of the colony's infrastructure and the populace's desperate, unavailing attempts at containment. This stark preamble instilled a gnawing dread, a foreboding that clung to every subsequent agonizing decision.

The initial exposition of the expedition's journal was crucial. It meticulously detailed the anomalous atmospheric pressures and the peculiar geological formations encountered on Kepler-186f, providing the beleaguered crew with the essential background details they desperately needed to formulate a survival strategy.

Before the grand joust, a rather protracted exposition detailed the lineage of Sir Reginald the Remarkably Ruminative, including his ancestral proclivity for artisanal cheeses and his bizarre predilection for singing opera to his prize-winning pumpkin. This extensive preamble, while ostensibly vital, was mostly filled with tangential anecdotes about competitive topiary.

The protracted exposition, a veritable encyclopedic outpouring, detailed the intricate lineage of sentient dust bunnies and their millennia-long quest for optimal lint accumulation. Before the main narrative commenced, we learned of Bartholomew Fluffernutter's great-great-great-great-grandmoth's perilous journey across the linoleum frontier, a pivotal moment in their microscopic civilization's annals.

Difficulty

Normal — Everyday words worth reinforcing.

Appears in

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