common thread

plural common threads

1. A recurring characteristic or theme present in different events or areas.

   What is the common thread in these three stories?

   3 more examples

   A common thread links the social world of barbershop with the neighbouring social worlds of jazz and classical music as these were sketched in the first chapter. The common thread is the general musical lifestyle shared by the musicians who […]

   1996, Robert A. Stebbins, The Barbershop Singer: Inside the Social World of a Musical Hobby, University of Toronto Press, →ISBN, page 100

   My experiences in education, network consulting, service provider support, and certification have shown me that there is a common thread that frustrates people in all of these arenas. That common thread is documentation.

   2001, William R. Parkhurst, Cisco BGP-4 Command and Configuration Handbook, Cisco Press, →ISBN

   It is not difficult to see that in this preoccupation with middle-class identity, there is a common thread to all the narratives I discussed. This common thread has to do with the attempts by the Victorian writers to dramatize finance capitalism at […]

   2004, Borislav Knezevic, Figures of Finance Capitalism: Writing, Class and Capital in Mid-Victorian Narratives, Routledge, →ISBN, page 152

   Synonyms: leitmotif, throughline, golden thread, common denominator