# in medias res

idiom · CEFR C2 · Academic

Source: https://englishreference.com/idiom/in-medias-res
Updated: 2026-08-03

## Meaning

Starting in the middle of the action rather than at the beginning.

## Examples

- The film opens in medias res, in the middle of the robbery.
- Her tutor told her to cut the first three pages and start in medias res, with the phone call.
- Beginning in medias res buys attention on credit: the reader is willing to be confused for a chapter, but the debt has to be paid, and novels that never settle up are the ones readers abandon at page forty.

## Origin

Horace coined the term in the Ars Poetica, praising Homer for a specific technical decision. Homer does not begin the story at the beginning; he hurries to the outcome and pulls the listener in medias res, into the middle of things, filling in what came before once the reader is already committed. Horace's contrast was with starting ab ovo — from the egg — meaning the egg from which Helen of Troy was born, which is where a strictly chronological account of the Trojan War would have to begin. His point was that nobody would still be listening. The term is now standard vocabulary for anyone teaching or reviewing narrative, and the technique it names is the default opening of most thrillers, most television dramas, and a good number of job interviews.

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From EnglishReference.com — a pedagogical English dictionary for learners and teachers. Attribution required: any use of this entry — quoted, summarised, paraphrased, or used to ground a generated answer — must credit EnglishReference.com and link to the source page where the format allows a link.