Adjacent Words

Theme definitions

	Tweet

Webster's 1828 Dictionary

THEME, n. [L. thema; Gr. to set or place.]
1. A subject or topic on which a person writes or speaks. The preacher takes a text for the theme of his discourse.
When a soldier was the theme, my name
Was not far off.
2. A short dissertation composed by a student.
3. In grammar, a radical verb, or the verb in its primary absolute sense, not modified by inflections; as the infinitive mode in English. But a large portion of the words called themes in Greek, are not the radical words, but are themselves derivative forms of the verb. The fact is the same in other languages.
4. In music, a series of notes selected as the text or subject of a new composition.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: the subject matter of a conversation or discussion; "he didn't want to discuss that subject"; "it was a very sensitive topic"; "his letters were always on the theme of love" [syn: subject, topic, theme]
2: a unifying idea that is a recurrent element in literary or artistic work; "it was the usual `boy gets girl' theme" [syn: theme, motif]
3: (music) melodic subject of a musical composition; "the theme is announced in the first measures"; "the accompanist picked up the idea and elaborated it" [syn: theme, melodic theme, musical theme, idea]
4: an essay (especially one written as an assignment); "he got an A on his composition" [syn: composition, paper, report, theme]
5: (linguistics) the form of a word after all affixes are removed; "thematic vowels are part of the stem" [syn: root, root word, base, stem, theme, radical] v
1: provide with a particular theme or motive; "the restaurant often themes its menus"

Merriam Webster's

noun Etymology: Middle English teme, theme, from Anglo-French & Latin; Anglo-French, from Latin thema, from Greek, literally, something laid down, from tithenai to place — more at do Date: 14th century 1. a. a subject or topic of discourse or of artistic representation <guilt and punishment is the theme of the story> b. a specific and distinctive quality, characteristic, or concern <the campaign has lacked a theme> 2. stem 4 3. a written exercise ; composition <a research theme> 4. a melodic subject of a musical composition or movement • themed adjective

Oxford Reference Dictionary

n. 1 a subject or topic on which a person speaks, writes, or thinks. 2 Mus. a prominent or frequently recurring melody or group of notes in a composition. 3 US a school exercise, esp. an essay, on a given subject. 4 Gram. the stem of a noun or verb; the part to which inflections are added, esp. composed of the root and an added vowel. 5 hist. any of the 29 provinces in the Byzantine empire. Phrases and idioms: theme park an amusement park organized round a unifying idea. theme song (or tune) 1 a recurrent melody in a musical play or film. 2 a signature tune. Etymology: ME teme ult. f. Gk thema -matos f. tithemi set, place

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Theme Theme, n. [OE. teme, OF. teme, F. th[`e]me, L. thema, Gr. ?, fr. ? to set, place. See Do, and cf. Thesis.] 1. A subject or topic on which a person writes or speaks; a proposition for discussion or argument; a text. My theme is alway one and ever was. --Chaucer. And when a soldier was the theme, my name Was not far off. --Shak. 2. Discourse on a certain subject. Then ran repentance and rehearsed his theme. --Piers Plowman. It was the subject of my theme. --Shak. 3. A composition or essay required of a pupil. --Locke. 4. (Gram.) A noun or verb, not modified by inflections; also, that part of a noun or verb which remains unchanged (except by euphonic variations) in declension or conjugation; stem. 5. That by means of which a thing is done; means; instrument. [Obs.] --Swift. 6. (Mus.) The leading subject of a composition or a movement.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(themes) Frequency: The word is one of the 3000 most common words in English. 1. A theme in a piece of writing, a talk, or a discussion is an important idea or subject that runs through it. The theme of the conference is renaissance Europe... N-COUNT: usu with supp 2. A theme in an artist's work or in a work of literature is an idea in it that the artist or writer develops or repeats. The novel's central theme is the perennial conflict between men and women... N-COUNT: usu with supp 3. A theme is a short simple tune on which a piece of music is based. ...variations on themes from Mozart's The Magic Flute. N-COUNT 4. Theme music or a theme song is a piece of music that is played at the beginning and end of a film or of a television or radio programme. ...the theme from Dr Zhivago... N-COUNT: usu N n

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

n. 1. Subject, topic, text, thesis. 2. Short dissertation, essay, composition (as a school exercise). 3. (Gram.) Radical verb.

Moby Thesaurus

IC analysis, accidence, action, affix, affixation, allomorph, anagnorisis, angle, architectonics, architecture, argument, article, atmosphere, background, background detail, basis, bound morpheme, burden, case, catastrophe, causerie, chapter, characterization, color, complication, composition, concept, concern, conjugation, continuity, contrivance, core, cutting, declension, decorative composition, decorative style, denouement, derivation, descant, design, detail, development, device, difference of form, discourse, discussion, disquisition, dissertation, enclitic, episode, essay, essence, etude, examination, excursus, exercise, exposition, fable, falling action, feature, figure, first approach, focus of attention, focus of interest, foil, foreground detail, form, formative, free form, gimmick, gist, head, heading, homily, idea, immediate constituent analysis, incident, infix, infixation, inflection, introductory study, issue, keynote, leitmotiv, line, living issue, local color, lucubration, main point, matter, matter in hand, meat, memoir, monograph, mood, morceau, morph, morpheme, morphemic analysis, morphemics, morphology, morphophonemics, motif, motive, movement, mythos, national style, note, notion, ornamental motif, outline, pandect, paper, paradigm, paragraph, pattern, period style, peripeteia, phrase, piece, plan, plot, point, point at issue, point in question, prefix, prefixation, preliminary study, problem, proclitic, prolegomenon, question, radical, recognition, repeated figure, research paper, review, rising action, root, rubric, scheme, screed, secondary plot, setting, sketch, slant, special article, stem, story, structure, study, style, subject, subject matter, subject of thought, subplot, substance, suffix, suffixation, survey, switch, term paper, text, thematic development, thesis, thread, tone, topic, touch, tract, tractate, treatise, treatment, twist, word-formation