Adjacent Words

Trope definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

TROPE, n. [L. tropus; Gr. to turn.] In rhetoric, a word or expression used in a different sense from that which it properly signifies; or a word changed from its original signification to another, for the sake of giving life or emphasis to an idea, as when we call a stupid fellow an ass, or a shrewd man a fox.
Tropes are chiefly of four kinds, metaphor, metonymy, synecdoche, and irony. Some authors make figure the genus, of which trope is a species; others make them different things, defining trope to be a change of sense, and figure to be any ornament, except what becomes so by such change.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: language used in a figurative or nonliteral sense [syn: trope, figure of speech, figure, image]

Merriam Webster's

noun Etymology: Latin tropus, from Greek tropos turn, way, manner, style, trope, from trepein to turn Date: 1533 1. a. a word or expression used in a figurative sense ; figure of speech b. a common or overused theme or device ; cliche <the usual horror movie tropes> 2. a phrase or verse added as an embellishment or interpolation to the sung parts of the Mass in the Middle Ages

Oxford Reference Dictionary

n. a figurative (e.g. metaphorical or ironical) use of a word. Etymology: L tropus f. Gk tropos turn, way, trope f. trepo turn

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Trope Trope, n. [L. tropus, Gr. ?, fr. ? to turn. See Torture, and cf. Trophy, Tropic, Troubadour, Trover.] (Rhet.) (a) The use of a word or expression in a different sense from that which properly belongs to it; the use of a word or expression as changed from the original signification to another, for the sake of giving life or emphasis to an idea; a figure of speech. (b) The word or expression so used. In his frequent, long, and tedious speeches, it has been said that a trope never passed his lips. --Bancroft. Note: Tropes are chiefly of four kinds: metaphor, metonymy, synecdoche, and irony. Some authors make figures the genus, of which trope is a species; others make them different things, defining trope to be a change of sense, and figure to be any ornament, except what becomes so by such change.

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

n. Figure of speech.