Meanings
nountopos (plural topoi or toposes)
- A literary theme or motif; a rhetorical convention or formula.
The ritual of weighing the soul was an iconographic topos familiar to Christianity from the ceremony of the weighing of sins at the Last Judgement.
2003, Roy Porter, Flesh in the Age of Reason, Penguin, published 2004, page 239 - category theoryA category that behaves like the category of sheaves of sets on a topological space (or, more generally, on a site).
- slangRugby SchoolA toilet.
Origin
- Ancient Greekτόπος“place”
- Englishtopos
From Ancient Greek τόπος (tópos, “place”). Compare topic.
More words from Ancient Greek
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Czech topos
- toposliterary theme
Dutch topos, topos
- toposliterary theme
- toposmathematical structure
French topos
- toposmathematical structure
German Topos, Topos
- Toposliterary theme
- Toposmathematical structure
Hungarian toposz
- toposzliterary theme
Japanese トポス, トポス
- トポス (toposu)literary theme
- トポス (toposu)mathematical structure
Polish topos, topos
- toposliterary theme
- toposmathematical structure
Spanish tópico
- tópicoliterary theme
Rhymes & wordplay
Anagrams
Cite this entry
APA
topos. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/topos
MLA
“topos.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/topos. Accessed November 2, 2026.
Chicago
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “topos,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/topos.
Source: topos on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.