a kind of story or myth that assumes universal acceptance and explains the meaning of the world and life in it

a more or less overarching (religious) story that shapes a people and gives their lives meaning

a primal myth or story that tells us who we are

a religious tradition or philosophical system that commits acts of cultural tyranny by promoting the fiction that all knowledge reduces to an absolute, unified theory

a story of mythic proportion that is big enough to pull together philosophy and other disciplines and give them a unifying sense of direction

a story or philosophy that claims to explain all life or claims to be the answer for people

a term used in postmodern discourse to refer to a narrative aboutnarratives

In critical theory, and particularly postmodernism, a metanarrative (sometimes master- or grand narrative) "is a global or totalizing cultural narrative schema which orders and explains knowledge and experience".Stephens, John (1998). Retelling Stories, Framing Culture : Traditional Story and Metanarratives in Children's Literature. ISBN 0-8153-1298-9.