trope

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Pronunciation

• (RP) IPA: /tɹəʊp/, [tɹ̥əʊp]
• (GA) enPR: trōp, IPA: /tɹoʊp/

Noun

trope (plural tropes)

1. (art, literature) Something recurring across a genre or type#Noun|type of art or literature, such as the ‘mad scientist’ of horror movies or the use of the phrase ‘once upon a time’ as an introduction to fairy tales; a motif.
2. (rhetoric) A figure of speech in which word#Noun|words or phrase#Noun|phrases are used with a nonliteral or figurative meaning#Noun|meaning, such as a metaphor.
3. (geometry) Mathematical senses.
   1. A tangent space meeting a quartic surface#Noun|surface in a conic#Noun|conic.
   2. (archaic) The reciprocal#Noun|reciprocal of a node on a surface.
4. (music) Musical senses.
   1. A short cadence at the end of the melody in some early music.
   2. A pair of complementary hexachords in twelve-tone technique.
   3. (Judaism) A cantillation pattern, or one of the mark#Noun|marks that represent#Verb|represents it.
   4. (Roman Catholicism) A phrase or verse added to the Mass when sung by a choir.
5. (philosophy) Philosophical senses.
   1. (Greek philosophy) Any of the ten arguments used in skepticism to refute dogmatism.
   2. (metaphysics) A particular instance of a property (such as the specific redness of a rose#Noun|rose), as contrasted with a universal#Noun|universal.

Translations

• French: motif
• Russian: троп
• Spanish: tópico

Translations

• French: trope, expression figurative
• German: Tropus, Trope
• Italian: tropo, figura retorica, metafora, metonimia
• Russian: троп
• Spanish: tropo

Translations

• Italian: tropo

Translations

• Italian: tropo
• Spanish: tropo

Verb

trope (tropes, present participle troping; past and past participle troped)

1. (transitive) To use#Verb|use, or embellish something with, a trope.
2. (transitive) Senses relating chiefly to art or literature.
   1. To represent something figuratively or metaphorically, especially as a literary motif.
   2. To turn into, coin#Verb|coin, or create a new trope.
   3. To analyse a work#Noun|work in terms of its literary tropes.
3. (intransitive) To think#Verb|think or write in terms of tropes.

Synonyms

• tropify

Related terms

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