theme
/θiːm/
Word Rarity
Uncommon
Frequency: Zipf frequency 4.62 in modern English
10
Scrabble Score
5
Letters
1
Syllables
4
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
The main melody of a piece of music, especially one that is the source of variations.
noun
A song, or a snippet of a song, that identifies a film, a TV program, a character, etc. by playing at the appropriate time.
noun
An additional puzzle within the crossword, typically involving a set of non-standard clues or answers.
noun
The stem of a word.
Example Sentences
- ""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."
- "variations on the theme of entrepreneurial resourcefulness"
- "switch to a dark theme to conserve battery power"
- "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."
- "We themed the birthday party around superheroes."
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.