Meanings
plural supertopics
- A topic that encompasses several other topics.
That choice would leave the supertopic Classroom Experiences open, a situation that can be represented with an open parenthesis.
2008, Deborah Schiffrin, Deborah Tannen, Heidi E. Hamilton, The Handbook of Discourse Analysis, page 6762 more examples
On the other hand, shifts in contextual constraints are even greater at first-level boundaries, at the beginning of a story (in narration) or a supertopic (in elicitation).
1998, Andreas H. Jucker, Yael Ziv, Discourse Markers: Descriptions and Theory, page 46There is an overarching topic, sometimes called a supertopic, and the interlocutors move through a series of subtopics related to the supertopic, slipping easily from one subtopic to the next.
2013, Jan McAllister, James E. Miller, Introductory Linguistics for Speech and Language Therapy, page 239
Origin
Cite this entry
supertopic. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/supertopic
“supertopic.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/supertopic. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “supertopic,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/supertopic.
Source: supertopic on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.