Trope vs. Theme — What's the Difference?

A figurative or metaphorical use of a word or expression

A topic of discourse or discussion.

A figure of speech using words in nonliteral ways, such as a metaphor.

A subject of artistic representation.

A word or phrase interpolated as an embellishment in the sung parts of certain medieval liturgies.

An implicit or recurrent idea; a motif

A theme, motif, plot, or literary device that commonly recurs within a genre or work of fiction, especially when considered clichéd

A short composition assigned to a student as a writing exercise.

An often recurring idea or image

(Music) A recurring melodic element in a composition, especially a melody forming the basis of a set of variations.

Something recurring across a genre or type of art or literature, such as the ‘mad scientist’ of horror movies or the use of the phrase ‘once upon a time’ as an introduction to fairy tales; a motif.

See topic.

(medieval Christianity) An addition (of dialogue, song, music, etc.) to a standard element of the liturgy, serving as an embellishment.

A stem.

(rhetoric) A figure of speech in which words or phrases are used with a nonliteral or figurative meaning, such as a metaphor.

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

(geometry) Mathematical senses.

A recurring idea; a motif.

A tangent space meeting a quartic surface in a conic.

A concept with multiple instantiations.

(archaic) The reciprocal of a node on a surface.

Any of various colors, or color palettes, in which a design is offered; (GUI) any of various skins for an app, affecting the visuals and perhaps other elements such as sound effects.

(music) Musical senses.

(dated) An essay written for school.

A short cadence at the end of the melody in some early music.

(music) The main melody of a piece of music, especially one that is the source of variations.

A pair of complementary hexachords in twelve-tone technique.

A song, or a snippet of a song, that identifies a film, a TV program, a character, etc. by playing at the appropriate time.

(Judaism) A cantillation pattern, or one of the marks that represents it.

(grammar) The stem of a word.

(philosophy) Philosophical senses.

(linguistics) thematic relation of a noun phrase to a verb.

(Greek philosophy) Any of the ten arguments used in skepticism to refute dogmatism.

(linguistics) Theta role in generative grammar and government and binding theory.

(metaphysics) A particular instance of a property (such as the specific redness of a rose), as contrasted with a universal.

(linguistics) Topic, what is generally being talked about, as opposed to rheme.

(transitive) To use, or embellish something with, a trope.

A regional unit of organisation in the Byzantine empire.

(transitive) Senses relating chiefly to art or literature.

(transitive) To give a theme to.

To represent something figuratively or metaphorically, especially as a literary motif.

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

To turn into, coin, or create a new trope.

A subject or topic on which a person writes or speaks; a proposition for discussion or argument; a text.

To analyse a work in terms of its literary tropes.

Discourse on a certain subject.

(intransitive) To think or write in terms of tropes.

A composition or essay required of a pupil.

The use of a word or expression in a different sense from that which properly belongs to it; the use of a word or expression as changed from the original signification to another, for the sake of giving life or emphasis to an idea; a figure of speech.

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.

Language used in a figurative or nonliteral sense

That by means of which a thing is done; means; instrument.

The leading subject of a composition or a movement.

The subject matter of a conversation or discussion;

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

(music) melodic subject of a musical composition;

An essay (especially one written as an assignment);

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

Provide with a particular theme or motive;