Definition

1. Noun:
   • An unexpected but vivid recurrence of a past experience: A sudden, clear, and powerful memory of a past event that feels like it is happening again. This often refers to the psychological re-experiencing of a traumatic event or the effects of a drug.
   • A narrative or cinematic transition to an earlier event: A technique used in literature, theater, or film where the story temporarily shifts to show events that happened before the current time in the narrative.

Examples of Usage

• Noun (Psychological Experience):

  • The sound of fireworks triggered a flashback to his time in combat.
  • She experienced a disturbing flashback of the accident.

• Noun (Narrative Technique):

  • The novel uses a flashback to reveal the character's childhood.
  • In the film's flashback, we see how the two friends first met.

Advanced Usage

• "to have a flashback": to experience a sudden, vivid memory.
  • Years later, he still has flashbacks of the earthquake.
• "flashback sequence": a series of scenes in a movie or book that depict past events.
  • The entire second chapter is a flashback sequence explaining the villain's motives.

Variants and Related Words

• Flashback (verb, rare): To transition to a past event in a narrative. (e.g., )
• Flash-forward (noun): The opposite narrative technique, where the story jumps ahead to future events.

Synonyms

• Recollection: The action of remembering something.
• Reminiscence: A story about a past event remembered by the narrator.
• Analepsis: The formal literary term for a flashback.

Related Phrases

• In flashback: Describing a scene or story section that is a flashback.
  • The entire episode is told in flashback.

Related Idioms

• No direct idioms are commonly formed with "flashback." The word itself functions as a specific technical and psychological term.

Noun

1. an unexpected but vivid recurrence of a past experience (especially a recurrence of the effects of an hallucinogenic drug taken much earlier)
2. a transition (in literary or theatrical works or films) to an earlier event or scene that interrupts the normal chronological development of the story