Guide to Literary Terms

Synopsis - a condensed statement providing a general view of a topic or subject and more often used with fiction than nonfiction. It is a form of abridgment and is closely related in meaning to compendium, resume, and summary.

The term is from the Greek sunopsis, which is a combination of sun, meaning “with or together,” and opsis, meaning “a view.”

A synopsis of Twain’s Huckleberry Finn might be as follows: it tells the adventures of a young Midwestern boy who runs away from home with an escaped slave.