trope

[ trohp ]
See synonyms for trope on Thesaurus.com
noun
  1. Rhetoric.

    • any literary or rhetorical device, as metaphor, metonymy, synecdoche, and irony, that consists in the use of words in other than their literal sense.

    • an instance of this.: Compare figure of speech.

  2. a phrase, sentence, or verse formerly interpolated in a liturgical text to amplify or embellish.

    • a recurring theme or motif, as in literature or art:the trope of motherhood;the heroic trope.

    • a convention or device that establishes a predictable or stereotypical representation of a character, setting, or scenario in a creative work:From her introduction in the movie, the character is nothing but a Damsel in Distress trope.The author relies on our knowledge of the Haunted House trope to set the scene.

  1. (in the philosophy of Santayana) the principle of organization according to which matter moves to form an object during the various stages of its existence.

Origin of trope

1
First recorded in 1525–35; from Latin tropus “figure in rhetoric, manner of singing” from Greek trópos “turn, manner, style, figure of speech,” akin to trépein “to turn, direct, show”

Other definitions for -trope (2 of 2)

-trope

  1. a combining form meaning “one turned toward” that specified by the initial element (heliotrope); also occurring in concrete nouns that correspond to abstract nouns ending in -tropy or -tropism: allotrope.

Origin of -trope

2
<Greek -tropos;see trope, tropo-

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use trope in a sentence

  • It's a hard word, but I've sure-ly heard her say he-li-o-trope sach-et.

  • Thus the rhetorical trope which is called surprise, is similar to that of music termed the declining of a cadence.

    Novum Organum | Francis Bacon
  • Thus, in trying to account for her to himself, did the honest Lackaday flounder from trope to metaphor.

    The Mountebank | William J. Locke
  • Allegoria, the seconde parte of trope is an inuersion of wordes, where it is one in wordes, and another in sentence or meanynge.

  • Though we could well have spared that Kembleian dying trope, his rising up and falling again.

British Dictionary definitions for trope (1 of 2)

trope

/ (trəʊp) /


noun
  1. rhetoric a word or expression used in a figurative sense

  2. an interpolation of words or music into the plainsong settings of the Roman Catholic liturgy

Origin of trope

1
C16: from Latin tropus figurative use of a word, from Greek tropos style, turn; related to trepein to turn

British Dictionary definitions for -trope (2 of 2)

-trope

n combining form
  1. indicating a turning towards, development in the direction of, or affinity to: heliotrope

Origin of -trope

2
from Greek tropos a turn

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012