theme

A subject, now especially of a talk or an artistic piece; a topic.

Noun

  1. A subject, now especially of a talk or an artistic piece; a topic.
    • "Had not you once a beautiful daughter, named Mary?" said the stranger. "It is a heartrending question, man," said Andrew; "but certes, I had once a beloved daughter named Mary." "What became of her?" asked the...
  2. A recurring idea; a motif.
    • variations on the theme of entrepreneurial resourcefulness

    1. A concept with multiple instantiations.

    2. Any of various colors, or color palettes, in which a design is offered; (graphical user interface) any of various skins for an app, affecting the visuals and perhaps other elements such as sound effects.

      • switch to a dark theme to conserve battery power

      Synonyms: colorway

  3. An essay written for school.
    • Father Dolan came in today and pandied me because I was not writing my theme. - 1917, James Joyce, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man:
    • […] his themes and exercises were in constant demand for what we called cogging and American students rather grandly called plagiarization. - 1979, Tri-Quarterly, numbers 46-47, page 273:
  4. The main melody of a piece of music, especially one that is the source of variations.
  5. A song, or a snippet of a song, that identifies a film, a TV program, a character, etc. by playing at the appropriate time.
  6. An additional puzzle within the crossword, typically involving a set of non-standard clues or answers.
  7. The stem of a word.
  8. Thematic relation of a noun phrase to a verb.
  9. Theta role in generative grammar and government and binding theory.
  10. Topic, what is generally being talked about.

    Coordinate Terms: rheme comment

  11. A regional unit of organisation in the Byzantine empire.

Origin

From Middle English teme, from Old French teme, tesme (French thème), from Latin thema, from Ancient Greek θέμα (théma), from τίθημι (títhēmi, “to put, place”), reduplicative from Proto-Indo-European *dʰeh₁- (“to put, place, do”) (whence also English do). Doublet of thema.

Forms

themes

Related

thema thematic thematisation thematise theme music theme park theme song theme tune

Derived

countertheme deuterothematic deuterotheme dithematic minitheme monothematic polythematic prototheme retheme subtheme themeable themeless themelet themer

Verb

  1. To give a theme to.
    • We themed the birthday party around superheroes.
  2. To apply a theme to; to change the visual appearance and/or layout of (software).

Forms

themes theming themed