Definify.com
Webster 1913 Edition
Trope
Trope
,Noun.
[L.
tropus
, Gr. [GREEK], fr. [GREEK] to turn. See Torture
, and cf. Trophy
, Tropic
, Troubadour
, Trover
.] (Rhet.)
(a)
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.
(b)
The word or expression so used.
In his frequent, long, and tedious speeches, it has been said that a
trope
never passed his lips. Bancroft.
☞ Tropes are chiefly of four kinds: metaphor, metonymy, synecdoche, and irony. Some authors make figures the genus, of which trope is a species; others make them different things, defining trope to be a change of sense, and figure to be any ornament, except what becomes so by such change.
Webster 1828 Edition
Trope
TROPE
,Noun.
Tropes are chiefly of four kinds, metaphor, metonymy, synecdoche, and irony. Some authors make figure the genus, of which trope is a species; others make them different things, defining trope to be a change of sense, and figure to be any ornament, except what becomes so by such change.
Definition 2024
trope
trope
See also: -trope
English
Noun
trope (plural tropes)
- (literature) Something recurring across a genre or type of literature, such as the ‘mad scientist’ of horror movies or ‘once upon a time’ as an introduction to fairy tales. Similar to archetype and cliché but not necessarily pejorative.
- A figure of speech in which words or phrases are used with a nonliteral or figurative meaning, such as a metaphor.
- (music) A short cadence at the end of the melody in some early music.
- (music) A phrase or verse added to the mass when sung by a choir.
- (music) A pair of complementary hexachords in twelve-tone technique.
- (Judaism) A cantillation pattern, or the mark that represents it.
Derived terms
Translations
literature: something recurring across a genre or type of literature
figure of speech in which a word or phrase is used other than in a literal manner
music: short cadence at the end of the melody in some early music
music: phrase or verse added to the mass when sung by a choir
judaism: cantillation pattern or mark
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.
- (often literature) To turn into, coin or create a new trope.
- (often literature) To analyze a work in terms of its literary tropes.
- (intransitive) To think or write in terms of tropes.
Synonyms
Related terms
Translations
Related terms
References
- J[ohn] A. Simpson and E[dward] S. C. Weiner, editors (1989) The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd edition, Oxford: Clarendon Press, ISBN 978-0-19-861186-8.