leitmotif

American  

[lahyt-moh-teef] / ˈlaɪt moʊˌtif /

Or leitmotiv

noun

1. a motif or theme associated throughout a music drama with a particular person, situation, or idea.

2. a unifying or dominant motif; a recurrent theme.

   A leitmotif in science fiction is the evolving relationship between humans and machines.

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leitmotif British  

/ ˈlaɪtməʊˌtiːf /

noun

1. music a recurring short melodic phrase or theme used, esp in Wagnerian music dramas, to suggest a character, thing, etc

2. an often repeated word, phrase, image, or theme in a literary work

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leitmotif Cultural  

1. A frequently recurring bit of melody, usually in opera, associated with a person, thing, or emotion; Leitmotiv is German for “leading theme.” The leitmotif may be heard in the instrumental or the vocal part.

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Discover More

Recurring themes or subjects in other forms of art or literature are sometimes also called leitmotifs.

Leitmotifs are particularly associated with the operas of Richard Wagner.

Etymology

Origin of leitmotif

First recorded in 1875–80; from German: “leading motive”

Example Sentences

He writes in a wry, amicable style, skillfully layering on his chosen leitmotifs—the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in A.D.

From The Wall Street Journal

Scorsese’s faith, and his battles with it, provide something of a leitmotif of the series — is he a saint or a sinner?

From Los Angeles Times

The book is crowded with characters, but “Sunshine Charlie” Mitchell, the head of National City Bank of New York, provides a sort of leitmotif.

From The Wall Street Journal

The Argentine author, whose writing habitually draws on the uncanny, here delivers a blend of superstition, dread and a leitmotif of mental instability in a register of acute psychological realism.

From The Wall Street Journal

Its leitmotif is push and pull: unsettling, bruising, often brutal, yet ultimately life-affirming.

From BBC

Related Words

• argument
• line
• matter
• motif
• point
• problem
• question
• stuff
• subject
• text
• thought
• topic