theme

n 1: the subject matter of a conversation or discussion; "he

didn't want to discuss that subject"; "it was a very

sensitive topic"; "his letters were always on the theme

of love" [syn: {subject}, {topic}]

2: a unifying idea that is a recurrent element in a literary or

artistic work; "it was the usual `boy gets girl' theme"

[syn: {motif}]

3: melodic subject of a musical composition; "the theme is

announced in the first measures"; "the accompanist picked

up the idea and elaborated it" [syn: {melodic theme}, {musical

theme}, {idea}]

4: an essay (especially one written as an assignment); "he got

an A on his composition" [syn: {composition}, {paper}, {report}]

5: (linguistics) the form of a word after all affixes are

removed; "thematic vowels are part of the stem" [syn: {root},

{root word}, {base}, {stem}, {radical}]