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theme

noun · verb

Simple meaning

A subject, now usually of a talk or an artistic piece.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

theem
US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈθim

This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.

IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.

Word Review

Definition

Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.

noun

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

    “It was the usual `boy gets girl' theme.”

  2. A subject, now especially of a talk or an artistic piece; a topic.

  3. A recurring idea; a motif.

  4. 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.

  5. A concept with multiple instantiations.

  6. A regional unit of organisation in the Byzantine empire.

verb

  1. Provide with a particular theme or motive

    “The restaurant often themes its menus.”

  2. transitive

    To give a theme to.

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
A2 · Elementary
Frequency
Common
Typical Use
Everyday English

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: A subject, now especially of a talk or an artistic piece; a topic.

Used this way, theme is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.

Emotional tone
Neutral
Formality
Neutral
Intensity
Not strongly marked
How common
Moderately common
Connotation
Matter-of-fact
Usage feel
Neutral and straightforward

Nearby words

  • musical theme , rarer, so it draws attention

Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.

How It’s Used

The word’s distinct uses, one example each.

  • Unifyingnoun

    “It was the usual `boy gets girl' theme.”

  • Provideverb

    “The restaurant often themes its menus.”

More ways to use theme

  • “It was the usual `boy gets girl' theme.”noun

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Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

Main

main theme

Melodic

theme song

Song

first theme

Other combinations

theme parkcentral thememajor themecommon themesecond theme

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Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Compound terms

Established multiword terms.

  • theme songnounCompound term

    A melody used to identify a performer or a dance band or radio/tv program.

  • theme parknounCompound term

    An amusement park that is organized around some theme (as the world of tomorrow).

  • melodic themenounCompound term

    Melodic subject of a musical composition.

  • musical themenounCompound term

    Melodic subject of a musical composition.

More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin

Synonyms

Sense: unifying idea that is a recurrent element in literary

ideamotifreporttopic

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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.