theme - Wiktionary, the free dictionary (original) (raw)

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

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.

theme (plural themes)

  1. A subject, now especially of a talk or an artistic piece; a topic.
    • 1828, James Hogg, Mary Burnet:
      "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.
    1. A concept with multiple instantiations.
      variations on the theme of entrepreneurial resourcefulness
    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.
      Synonym: colorway
      switch to a dark theme to conserve battery power
  3. (dated) An essay written for school.
    • 1917, James Joyce, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man:
      Father Dolan came in today and pandied me because I was not writing my theme.
    • 1979, Tri-Quarterly, numbers 46-47, page 273:
      […] his themes and exercises were in constant demand for what we called cogging and American students rather grandly called plagiarization.
  4. (music) The main melody of a piece of music, especially one that is the source of variations.
  5. (film, television, video games) 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. (crosswording) An additional puzzle within the crossword, typically involving a set of non-standard clues or answers.
  7. (grammar) The stem of a word.
  8. (linguistics) Thematic relation of a noun phrase to a verb.
  9. (linguistics) Theta role in generative grammar and government and binding theory.
  10. (linguistics) Topic, what is generally being talked about.
    Coordinate terms: rheme, comment
  11. A regional unit of organisation in the Byzantine empire.

subject of a talk or an artistic piece

recurring idea

music: main melody of a piece of music

grammar: stem of a word

linguistics: thematic relation of a noun phrase to a verb

linguistics: theta role in generative grammar and government and binding theory

theme (third-person singular simple present themes, present participle theming, simple past and past participle themed)

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

theme (plural themes)

  1. alternative form of teme (“topic”)

theme

  1. alternative spelling of þeme (“them”)