trope
/tɹəʊp/US/tɹoʊp/
trope noun: something recurring across a genre or type of art or literature; a motif.
Noun
trope (plural tropes)
- Something recurring across a genre or type of art or literature; a motif.
- You have to give director Colm McCarthy, a Scottish TV veteran making his feature film debut, and writer Mike Carey, adapting his own novel, credit for attempting the seemingly impossible task of doing something new with the zombie subgenre. And by blending it with the common YA [young adult] trope...2017 February 23, Katie Rife, “The Girl With All The Gifts tries to put a fresh spin on overripe zombie clichés”, in The A.V. Club
- They have completely supported the Russians diplomatically, they’ve abstained in key votes at the United Nations, they’ve absolutely cynically repeated all the Russian tropes, particularly in places like Africa and Latin America – [by]^([sic]) blaming Nato and all of this stuff.2023 July 20, Helen Davidson, quoting Richard Moore, “China complicit in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, says MI6 chief”, in The Guardian, →ISSN
- An addition (of dialogue, song, music, etc.) to a standard element of the liturgy, serving as an embellishment.
- Usually known as 'tropes,' these interpolations consisted at first of but a few words; those of the Introit at the beginning of Mass on great festivals, however, often took the form of dialogues.1918, Paul Studer, Le mystère d'Adam, an Anglo-Norman drama of the twelfth century
- In the broadest sense tropes are all the later musical and textual accretions to the Franco-Roman nucleus of antiphonal and responsorial chants for mass and offices that we call Gregorian chant, a repertoire primarily fixed by the early 9th century. A trope might be a newly added textless melody (a...1998, Peter M. Lefferts, “trope”, in Paul E. Szarmach, M. Teresa Tavormina, Joel T. Rosenthal, editors, Medieval England: An Encyclopedia (Routledge Encyclopedias of the Middle Ages; 3), New York...
- A figure of speech in which words or phrases are used with a nonliteral or figurative meaning, such as a metaphor.
- Since the tories have thus disappointed my hopes, / And will neither regard my figures nor tropes; I'll speech against peace while Dismal's my name, / And be a true whig, while I'm Not-in-game.1711 [December?] (date written), Jonathan Swift, “An Excellent New Song. Being the Intended Speech of a Famous Orator against Peace [i.e., Daniel Finch, 2nd Earl of Nottingham].”, in Thomas Sheridan...
- [T]hese four cauſes concurring, the admiration of ancient authors, the hate of the ſchoolmen, the exact ſtudy of languages, and the efficacy of preaching, did bring in an affected ſtudy of eloquoence, and copia of ſpeech, which then began to flouriſh. This grew ſpeedily to an exceſs; for men began...1765, Francis Bacon, “The First Book of Francis Bacon: Of the Proficience and Advancement of Learning, Divine and Human”, in The Works of Francis Bacon, Baron of Verulam, Viscount St. Alban, and Lord...
- A tangent space meeting a quartic surface in a conic.
- Hence the section must be a conic passing through six nodes, that is, the plane touches the surface all along a conic, and is therefore a trope. The complete section of the surface by a trope is a conic counted twice; since this passes through six nodes, the trope must touch the six quadric tangent...1905, R[onald] W[illiam] H[enry] T[urnbull] Hudson, “The Quartic Surface”, in Kummer’s Quartic Surface, Cambridge: At the University Press, →OCLC; republished Cambridge: Cambridge University Press...
- The reciprocal of a node on a surface.
- I take account of conical and biplanar nodes, or, as I call them, cnicnodes, and binodes; of pinch-points on the nodal curve; and of close-points and off-points on the cuspidal curve: viz. I assume that there are / C, cnicnodes, / B, binodes, / j, pinch-points, / #92;chi, close points, / #92;theta...1868 November 12, [Arthur] Cayley, “VI. A Memoir on the Theory of Reciprocal Surfaces”, in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, volume 159, part I, London: Printed by Taylor and...
- A short cadence at the end of the melody in some early music.
- Is not the trope of muſic, to avoid or ſlide from the cloſe or cadence, common with the trope of rhetoric, of deceiving expectation? Is not the delight of the quavering upon a ſtop in muſic, the ſame with the playing of light upon the water?1765, Francis Bacon, “The Second Book of Francis Bacon: Of the Proficience and Advancement of Learning, Divine and Human”, in The Works of Francis Bacon, Baron of Verulam, Viscount St. Alban, and...
- If the antiphon comes to an end with the “Praeparatio” trope, a musical difficulty is presented by the trope’s cadence. Although the antiphon is in the E-plagal mode and the first three trope elements cadence on E, this trope cadences on G, a rare cadence tone in this mode.1983, John G. Johnstone, “Beyond a Chant: ‘Tui sunt caeli’ and Its Tropes”, in Studies in the History of Music, volumes 1 (Music and Language), New York, N.Y.: Broude Brothers, →ISBN, pages 24–37...
- A pair of complementary hexachords in twelve-tone technique.
- The eighty six-note segments were originally tabulated by Hauer and are the basis of his twelve-tone system. Each of [Josef Matthias] Hauer's tropes consists of two hexachords of mutually exclusive content, so that each pair of hexachords includes all twelve tones of the semitonal scale. Only eight...1963, George Perle, “Simultaneity”, in Serial Composition and Atonality: An Introduction to the Music of Schoenberg, Berg, and Webern, Berkeley; Los Angeles, Calif.: University of California Press...
- A cantillation pattern, or one of the marks that represents it.
- The Torah was chanted in a loud and strong voice so that all could hear. This cantillation of the Torah—trope—is shown by musical notation which serves grammatical and exegetical functions, ta'amay hamikra or ta'amay n'ginah. They put down in a final form an oral tradition that had been maintained...1985, Steven M. Brown, “The Languages of Prayer”, in Stephen Garfinkel, editor, Higher and Higher: Making Jewish Prayer Part of Us, Department of Youth Activities, United Synagogue of America, →OCLC...
- The trope does not appear on the handwritten Torah scroll, but the assignment of notes for each word was fixed long ago and is accepted by Jewish communities around the world; the trope now appears in nearly every Jewish printed Bible. […] The symbols that signify the trope for the Hebrew text were...2006, Sara E. Karesh, Mitchell M. Hurvitz, “trope”, in Encyclopedia of Judaism (Encyclopedia of World Religions), New York, N.Y.: Facts On File, Infobase Publishing, →ISBN, page 526, column 1
- Synonyms:
- ta'amim, teamim, te'amim
- Any of the ten arguments used in skepticism to refute dogmatism.
- For [Georg Wilhelm Friedrich] Hegel, ancient skepticism preserved the essence of the skeptical principle, and the tropes express this principle. In the earlier ten tropes, there is, according to Hegel, a lack of abstraction that becomes obvious in the fact that their diversity could be grasped...2003, Tanja Staehler, “The Historicity of Philosophy and the Role of Skepticism”, in David A. Duquette, editor, Hegel’s History of Philosophy: New Interpretations (SUNY Series in Hegelian Studies)...
- A particular instance of a property (such as the specific redness of a rose), as contrasted with a universal.
- Trope theory, though a minority view today, has been popular at various times throughout the history of philosophy, especially among medieval philosophers. Trope theory holds that properties and relations are themselves (unrepeatable) particulars. (Tropes are also called 'abstract particulars' –...2017, Brian Garrett, What is this Thing Called Metaphysics?, 3rd edition, Abingdon, Oxon.; New York, N.Y.: Routledge, →ISBN, pages 55–56
Verb
trope (third-person singular simple present tropes, present participle troping, simple past and past participle troped)
- To use, or embellish something with, a trope.
- The motive for troping the introit was twofold. Firstly there was the desire to add colour, mystical fervour, to the restrained, matter-of-fact Roman rite. Besides this psychological reason there was a practical one. The introit was sung by the choir while the celebrants proceeded towards the altar...1926, J[ames] M[idgley] Clark, “The Drama”, in The Abbey of St Gall as a Centre of Literature & Art, Cambridge: At the University Press, →ISBN, page 206
- The specific outcome of that 'story-telling' largely derives from how managers 'figure' their world – how they trope or 'figuratively turn' meanings. So, management decision(s) making is about figurative synthesis – troping literal meaning – as much as it might be analysis.2015, Alun Munslow, “Managing the Past”, in Patricia Genoe McLaren, Albert J. Mills, Terrance G. Weatherbee, editors, The Routledge Companion to Management and Organizational History (Routledge...
- To represent something figuratively or metaphorically, especially as a literary motif.
- "So clomb this first grand Thief into God's Fold" (4.192), [John] Milton writes, thus troping Satan's transgression as neither deception, seduction, nor disobedience, though he presents it in those terms elsewhere, but rather as robbery.1999, Heather Dubrow, “'A Doubtfull Sense of Things': Thievery in The Faerie Queene 6.10 and 6.11”, in Patrick Cheney, Lauren Silberman, editors, Worldmaking Spenser: Explorations in the Early Modern...
- It suggests that the "masculine" (or exaggeratedly masculine) style of Death in the Afternoon [by Ernest Hemingway] is not a formal or immanent attribute of the text but must be "engendered" through acts of interpretation. And it suggests that what was at stake in this "engendering" was nothing...2002, Thomas Strychacz, “'The Sort of Thing You Should Not Admit': Ernest Hemingway's Aesthetic of Emotional Restraint”, in Milette Shamir, Jennifer Travis, editors, Boy's Don't Cry?: Rethinking...
- To turn into, coin, or create a new trope.
- I troped the World Wide Web as an especially dangerous research venue. "Don't pick up anything unless you know where it has been," I said.2009, Julie Clark Simon, “Voiceprinting: How Its Failures Speak”, in Emily Golson, Toni Glover, editors, Negotiating a Meta-pedagogy: Learning from Other Disciplines, Newcastle upon Tyne, Tyne and...
- To analyse a work in terms of its literary tropes.
- To think or write in terms of tropes.
- By acting in loco parentis, the written word performs its own usurpations of generating authority and generated meanings. Therefore, after the brothers demolish the authority of the word as written, they ar able to substitute alternative authorities: the word as spoken, the word as added, the word...1988, Deborah Baker Wyrick, “Investitures: Swift and Verbal Authority”, in Jonathan Swift and the Vested Word, Chapel Hill, N.C.; London: University of North Carolina Press, →ISBN, pages 39–40
trope meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Punjabi and Persian
trope in Tamil
- வழுவமைதி, சொல்லணி, உருவக வழக்கு, அணிநயச் சொற்றொடர்
trope in Urdu
- trope
- استعارہ isti'āra
trope in Punjabi
- ਟਰੋਪ ਕਰਨ ਲਈ
trope in Persian
- rhetoric: figure of speech in which words or phrases are used with a nonliteral or figurative meaning
- مجاز majâz
Examples of trope in a sentence
- “It’s full of classic tropes, but at the heart of it is a gorgeous love story with some genuinely funny moments,” she said.2025 April 4, Nadia Khomami, “Clickbait titles and cliffhangers: the mini TV serials capturing phone audiences”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:
- Hence the section must be a conic passing through six nodes, that is, the plane touches the surface all along a conic, and is therefore a trope.1905, R[onald] W[illiam] H[enry] T[urnbull] Hudson, “The Quartic Surface”, in Kummer’s Quartic Surface, Cambridge: At the University Press...
- Each of [Josef Matthias] Hauer's tropes consists of two hexachords of mutually exclusive content, so that each pair of hexachords includes all twelve tones of the semitonal scale.1963, George Perle, “Simultaneity”, in Serial Composition and Atonality: An Introduction to the Music of Schoenberg, Berg, and Webern...
- This cantillation of the Torah—trope—is shown by musical notation which serves grammatical and exegetical functions, ta'amay hamikra or ta'amay n'ginah.1985, Steven M. Brown, “The Languages of Prayer”, in Stephen Garfinkel, editor, Higher and Higher: Making Jewish Prayer Part of Us...
Synonyms of trope
- ta'amim
- teamim
- te'amim
- tropify
Forms of trope
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | tropes |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | tropes |
| present participle | troping |
| past participle | troped |
| past | troped |
Origin of trope
From Latin tropus, from Ancient Greek τρόπος (trópos, “a manner, style, turn, way; a trope or figure of speech; a mode in music; a mode or mood in logic”), related to τροπή (tropḗ, “solstice; trope; turn”) and τρέπειν (trépein, “to turn”); compare turn of phrase. The verb is derived from the noun.
Words formed from trope
Words that rhyme with trope
Questions about trope
- What does trope mean?
- Trope means something recurring across a genre or type of art or literature; a motif.
- What is trope in Tamil?
- Trope in Tamil is வழுவமைதி, சொல்லணி, உருவக வழக்கு. See Trope meaning in Tamil.
- How do you use trope in a sentence?
- “It’s full of classic tropes, but at the heart of it is a gorgeous love story with some genuinely funny moments,” she said.
- What part of speech is trope?
- Trope can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce trope?
- Trope is pronounced /tɹəʊp/ (UK).
- What is the plural of trope?
- The plural of trope is tropes.
Words near trope in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: trope (page history and authors); trope (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); استعارہ (Urdu) (page history and authors); trope (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-trope.wav.
Cite this entry: “trope.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/trope. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.