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Webster 1913 Edition

Theme

Theme

,
Noun.
[OE.
teme
, OF.
teme
, F.
thème
, L.
thema
, Gr. [GREEK], fr. [GREEK] 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.
Shakespeare
2.
Discourse on a certain subject.
Then ran repentance and rehearsed his
theme
.
Piers Plowman.
It was the subject of my
theme
.
Shakespeare
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.

Webster 1828 Edition

Theme

THEME

,
Noun.
[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.

Definition 2024

theme

theme

See also: thème

English

Noun

theme ‎(plural themes)

  1. A subject of a talk or an artistic piece; a topic.
  2. A recurring idea; a motif.
  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.
  4. (music) The main melody of a piece of music, especially one that is the source of variations.
  5. (film, television) 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. (computing, figuratively) The collection of color schemes, sounds, artwork etc., that "skin" an environment towards a particular motif.
  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, as opposed to rheme
  11. A regional unit of organisation in the Byzantine empire.

Related terms

Translations

Verb

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

  1. (computing, transitive) To apply a theme to; to change the visual appearance and/or layout of (software).

Etymology

From Old French tesme (French: thème), from Latin thema, from Ancient Greek θέμα ‎(théma), from τίθημι ‎(títhēmi, “I put, place”), reduplicative from Proto-Indo-European *dʰeh₁- ‎(“to put, place, do”) (whence also English do).

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /θiːm/
  • Rhymes: -iːm (for all senses; incorrectly used in some cases instead of the second pronunciation)
  • Rhymes: -iːmi (for the sense dealing with the Byzantine empire only)

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