Skip to content

theme

verb

  1. to provide or be the subject for
  2. give a stylistic theme to something
L333253 on Wikidata ↗

noun

  1. central topic of a literary text, or similar work
  2. musical melody on which a composition is based
L7489 on Wikidata ↗

Wiktionary

Pronunciation: /θiːm/

noun

Etymology: 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.

  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 stranger. Andrew shook his head, turned round, and began to move away; it was a theme that his heart could not brook.

  2. A recurring idea; a motif.

    variations on the theme of entrepreneurial resourcefulness

  3. A recurring idea; a motif.

    switch to a dark theme to conserve battery power

  4. An essay written for school.

    Father Dolan came in today and pandied me because I was not writing my theme.

    […] his themes and exercises were in constant demand for what we called cogging and American students rather grandly called plagiarization.

  5. The main melody of a piece of music, especially one that is the source of variations.
  6. A song, or a snippet of a song, that identifies a film, a TV program, a character, etc. by playing at the appropriate time.
  7. An additional puzzle within the crossword, typically involving a set of non-standard clues or answers.
  8. The stem of a word.
  9. Thematic relation of a noun phrase to a verb.
  10. Theta role in generative grammar and government and binding theory.
  11. Topic, what is generally being talked about.
  12. A regional unit of organisation in the Byzantine empire.

verb

Etymology: 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.

  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).