Link Centre Dictionary

theme

UK/θiːm/ US/ˈθim/ common
noun (5) verb (1)

noun

1.

the subject matter of a conversation or discussion

  • “he didn”
  • “;”
  • “;”
Synonyms
2.

a unifying idea that is a recurrent element in a literary or artistic work

  • “it was the usual”
  • “theme”
Synonyms
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”
Synonyms
4.

an essay (especially one written as an assignment)

  • “he got an A on his composition”
Synonyms
5.

(linguistics) the form of a word after all affixes are removed

  • “thematic vowels are part of the stem”
Synonyms

verb

1.

provide with a particular theme or motive

  • “the restaurant often themes its menus”

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.

Phrases

  • theme music
  • theme park
  • theme song
  • theme tune

Related words

Word family

Broader terms

Narrower terms

WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.