Logline
noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 A very short summary of a script or screenplay.
"Screenwriting Tip #12: If you don't know your own logline, you probably don't know what your script is about. Some writers will tell you they don't have a logline. Their screenplay is “too complex” or “too character-driven,” […]"
- 2 The line fastened to the log, and marked for finding the speed of a vessel.
"Besides the ingenious Pilot knowing the elevation of the Pole in some places of his voyage that he hath passed, by keeping a true, not a dead reckoning of his course in pricking his Card aright, and observing the way with the logge-line, with other currants, will give a very artificiall conjecture of the elevation of the pole in that place where he is, though he sec neither Sunne nor Starres."
Example
More examples"Screenwriting Tip #12: If you don't know your own logline, you probably don't know what your script is about. Some writers will tell you they don't have a logline. Their screenplay is “too complex” or “too character-driven,” […]"
Etymology
First attested in 1613 as logge-line. A compound of log + line.
Related phrases
More for "logline"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.