1. A brief outline or general view; such as, a subject or written work resulting in an abstract or a summary.
2. A sketchy summary of the main points of an argument or a theory.
3. A brief description of the contents of something such as a film or book.
4. Etymology: from Late Latin synopsis, "a synopsis"; from Greek synopsis, "general view"; from a stem of synoran, "to see altogether, to see all at once"; from syn-, "together" + opsis, "to see, to view".