Meanings
nountheme (plural themes)
plural themes
- A subject, now especially of a talk or an artistic piece; a topic.
1 more example
"Had not you once a beautiful daughter, named Mary?" said the stranger. "It is a heartrending question, man," said Andrew; "but certes, I had once a beloved daughter named Mary." "What became of her?" asked the stranger. Andrew shook his head, turned round, and began to move away; it was a theme that his heart could not brook.
1828, James Hogg, Mary Burnet - A recurring idea; a motif.
- A concept with multiple instantiations.
variations on the theme of entrepreneurial resourcefulness
- Any of various colors, or color palettes, in which a design is offered; (graphical user interface) any of various skins for an app, affecting the visuals and perhaps other elements such as sound effects.
switch to a dark theme to conserve battery power
Synonyms: colorway
- datedAn essay written for school.
Father Dolan came in today and pandied me because I was not writing my theme.
1917, James Joyce, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man1 more example
[…] his themes and exercises were in constant demand for what we called cogging and American students rather grandly called plagiarization.
1979, Tri-Quarterly, numbers 46-47, page 273 - entertainmentThe main melody of a piece of music, especially one that is the source of variations.
- crosswordingAn additional puzzle within the crossword, typically involving a set of non-standard clues or answers.
- grammarThe stem of a word.
- human sciencesThematic relation of a noun phrase to a verb.
- human sciencesTheta role in generative grammar and government and binding theory.
- human sciencesTopic, what is generally being talked about.
- A regional unit of organisation in the Byzantine empire.
verbtheme (third-person singular simple present themes, present participle theming, simple past and past participle themed)
present singular third person themes · participle present theming · participle past themed · past themed
- transitiveTo give a theme to.
We themed the birthday party around superheroes.
- transitivecomputingTo apply a theme to; to change the visual appearance and/or layout of (software).
Synonyms & antonyms
nounAny of various colors, or color palettes, in which a design is offered; (graphical user interface) any of various skins for an app, affecting the visuals and perhaps other elements such as sound effects.
Similar
More synonyms by meaning
nounthe subject matter of a conversation or discussion
Broader
nouna unifying idea that is a recurrent element in literary or artistic work
Similar
noun(music) melodic subject of a musical composition
Similar
noun(linguistics) the form of a word after all affixes are removed
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Origin
- Proto-Indo-European*dʰeh₁-“to put, place, do”
- Ancient Greekθέμα
- Latinthema
- Old Frenchteme
- Middle Englishteme
- Englishtheme
From Middle English teme, from Old French teme, tesme (French thème), from Latin thema, from Ancient Greek θέμα (théma), from τίθημι (títhēmi, “to put, place”), reduplicative from Proto-Indo-European *dʰeh₁- (“to put, place, do”) (whence also English do). Doublet of thema.
More words from Middle English, Old French, Latin
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Ancient Greek θέμα
- θέμα (théma)subject of a talk or an artistic piece
Arabic مَوْضُوع
- مَوْضُوع (mawḍūʕ)subject of a talk or an artistic piece
Bengali বিষয়
- বিষয় (biśoẏ)subject of a talk or an artistic piece
Bulgarian те́ма, те́ма
- те́ма (téma)subject of a talk or an artistic piece
- те́ма (téma)music: main melody of a piece of music
- осно́ва (osnóva)grammar: stem of a word
Catalan tema, tema
- temasubject of a talk or an artistic piece
- temamusic: main melody of a piece of music
- temaregional unit of organisation in the Byzantine empire
Chinese Cantonese 主題 /主题
- 主題 /主题 (zyu² tai⁴)subject of a talk or an artistic piece
Chinese Mandarin 主題 /主题, 話題 /话题
- 主題 /主题 (zhǔtí)subject of a talk or an artistic piece
- 話題 /话题 (huàtí)subject of a talk or an artistic piece
- 主旋律 (zhǔxuánlǜ)music: main melody of a piece of music
- 主題 /主题 (zhǔtí)music: main melody of a piece of music
Czech téma
- témasubject of a talk or an artistic piece
Danish tema
- temasubject of a talk or an artistic piece
Dutch thema
- themasubject of a talk or an artistic piece
Esperanto temo
- temosubject of a talk or an artistic piece
Estonian teema
- teemasubject of a talk or an artistic piece
Finnish aihe, teema
- aihesubject of a talk or an artistic piece
- teemamusic: main melody of a piece of music
- vartalogrammar: stem of a word
- aihelinguistics: topic, what is generally being talked about
- puheenaihelinguistics: topic, what is generally being talked about
- teemarecurring idea
- aiherecurring idea
French thème
- thèmesubject of a talk or an artistic piece
German Thema, Thema
- Themasubject of a talk or an artistic piece
- Themamusic: main melody of a piece of music
- Stammgrammar: stem of a word
- Wortstammgrammar: stem of a word
- Themalinguistics: topic, what is generally being talked about
- Motivrecurring idea
- Themecomputing: collection of color schemes, sounds, artwork etc.
Greek θέμα, θέμα
- θέμα (théma)subject of a talk or an artistic piece
- θέμα (théma)music: main melody of a piece of music
- θέμα (théma)grammar: stem of a word
- θέμα (théma)linguistics: topic, what is generally being talked about
- θέμα (théma)regional unit of organisation in the Byzantine empire
Hebrew נוֹשֵׂא, תֵּמָה
- נוֹשֵׂא (nosé)subject of a talk or an artistic piece
- תֵּמָה (téma)subject of a talk or an artistic piece
- ערכת נושא (erkát nosé)computing: collection of color schemes, sounds, artwork etc.
Hindi विषय, प्रसंग
- विषय (viṣay)subject of a talk or an artistic piece
- प्रसंग (prasaṅg)subject of a talk or an artistic piece
Hungarian téma, tárgy
- témasubject of a talk or an artistic piece
- tárgysubject of a talk or an artistic piece
- témamusic: main melody of a piece of music
- motívummusic: main melody of a piece of music
- témalinguistics: topic, what is generally being talked about
- themaregional unit of organisation in the Byzantine empire
- motívumrecurring idea
- témacomputing: collection of color schemes, sounds, artwork etc.
Icelandic þema, efni
- þemasubject of a talk or an artistic piece
- efnisubject of a talk or an artistic piece
- stefmusic: main melody of a piece of music
- temamusic: main melody of a piece of music
- þemamusic: main melody of a piece of music
- þemalinguistics: theta role in generative grammar and government and binding theory
Indonesian tema
- temasubject of a talk or an artistic piece
Irish téama, ábhar
- téamasubject of a talk or an artistic piece
- ábharsubject of a talk or an artistic piece
- téamamusic: main melody of a piece of music
Italian tema
- temacomputing: collection of color schemes, sounds, artwork etc.
Japanese 主題, テーマ
- 主題 (shudai)subject of a talk or an artistic piece
- テーマ (tēma)subject of a talk or an artistic piece
- 話題 (wadai)subject of a talk or an artistic piece
- 主題 (shudai)recurring idea
- テーマ (tēma)computing: collection of color schemes, sounds, artwork etc.
Korean 주제, 테마
- 주제 (juje)subject of a talk or an artistic piece
- 테마 (tema)subject of a talk or an artistic piece
- 쩨마 (jjema)subject of a talk or an artistic piece
- 화제 (hwaje)subject of a talk or an artistic piece
- 테마 (tema)computing: collection of color schemes, sounds, artwork etc.
Latvian temats
- tematssubject of a talk or an artistic piece
Lithuanian tema
- temasubject of a talk or an artistic piece
Malay tema
- temasubject of a talk or an artistic piece
Māori marau, kaupapa
- marausubject of a talk or an artistic piece
- kaupapasubject of a talk or an artistic piece
- tāhuhusubject of a talk or an artistic piece
- tāhuhumusic: main melody of a piece of music
- tāhūmusic: main melody of a piece of music
- tāhuhulinguistics: topic, what is generally being talked about
- tāhuhurecurring idea
- tāhūrecurring idea
Norwegian Bokmål tema
- temasubject of a talk or an artistic piece
Polish temat, kompozycja
- tematsubject of a talk or an artistic piece
- kompozycjacomputing: collection of color schemes, sounds, artwork etc.
- motywcomputing: collection of color schemes, sounds, artwork etc.
Portuguese tema, tema
- temasubject of a talk or an artistic piece
- temamusic: main melody of a piece of music
- temagrammar: stem of a word
- temarecurring idea
- temacomputing: collection of color schemes, sounds, artwork etc.
Romanian temă, temă
- temăsubject of a talk or an artistic piece
- temămusic: main melody of a piece of music
- temăgrammar: stem of a word
- temăregional unit of organisation in the Byzantine empire
- temărecurring idea
Russian те́ма, те́ма
- те́ма (téma)subject of a talk or an artistic piece
- те́ма (téma)music: main melody of a piece of music
- осно́ва (osnóva)grammar: stem of a word
- ко́рень (kórenʹ)grammar: stem of a word
- те́ма (téma)recurring idea
- моти́в (motív)recurring idea
- те́ма (téma)computing: collection of color schemes, sounds, artwork etc.
Slovak téma
- témasubject of a talk or an artistic piece
Spanish tema, temática
- temasubject of a talk or an artistic piece
- temáticasubject of a talk or an artistic piece
- temamusic: main melody of a piece of music
- temagrammar: stem of a word
- temalinguistics: topic, what is generally being talked about
- themaregional unit of organisation in the Byzantine empire
- temarecurring idea
- temáticarecurring idea
Swedish tema, tema
- temasubject of a talk or an artistic piece
- temacomputing: collection of color schemes, sounds, artwork etc.
Tagalog tema
- temasubject of a talk or an artistic piece
Thai กระทู้
- กระทู้ (grà-túu)subject of a talk or an artistic piece
Turkish ana konu, tema
- ana konusubject of a talk or an artistic piece
- temasubject of a talk or an artistic piece
- mevzusubject of a talk or an artistic piece
Ukrainian те́ма, те́ма
- те́ма (téma)subject of a talk or an artistic piece
- те́ма (téma)computing: collection of color schemes, sounds, artwork etc.
Urdu مَوضُوع
- مَوضُوع (mauzū')subject of a talk or an artistic piece
Vietnamese chủ đề
- chủ đềsubject of a talk or an artistic piece
Yiddish טעמע
- טעמע (teme)subject of a talk or an artistic piece
Rhymes & wordplay
Anagrams
Cite this entry
APA
theme. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/theme
MLA
“theme.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/theme. Accessed November 2, 2026.
Chicago
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “theme,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/theme.
Source: theme on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.