topic
[top-ik]
- a subject of conversation or discussion: to provide a topic for discussion.
- the subject or theme of a discourse or of one of its parts.
- Rhetoric, Logic. a general field of considerations from which arguments can be drawn.
- Also called theme. Linguistics. the part of a sentence that announces the item about which the rest of the sentence communicates information, often signaled by initial position in the sentence or by a grammatical marker.Compare comment(def 7).
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Origin of topic
Synonyms
See more synonyms for on Thesaurus.comDictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Related Words
caseaffairbusinesspointmaterialquestionargumentmatterthemepropositionfieldproblemissuesubjectdivisionheadmotiftextmotionthesisExamples from the Web for topic
Contemporary Examples
One topic that comes up among the members, she says, is dealing with loss years later.
The other Twitter topic you are well known for is the topic of Salon.
Of course there was no official way to have these interviews given the sensitivity of the topic.
The Life and Hard Times Of The Family A Cuban Defector Left BehindBrin-Jonathan Butler
December 19, 2014
Understandably, Borle has a lot to get off his chest on the topic.
The Cast of ‘Peter Pan Live!’ Knows You Hatewatched ‘The Sound of Music’Kevin Fallon
December 2, 2014
Degas, Toulouse-Lautrec, and Cezanne all frequented the circus and adopted it as a topic.
Historical Examples
In close connexion with the Survey and Lands Department is the topic of exploration.
Explorations in AustraliaJohn Forrest
Young Hiram had no patience with one's profession as a topic of conversation.
In the Midst of AlarmsRobert Barr
Each time she got on this topic I cut her short, vowing that if I ever married she only should be my wife.
Green MansionsW. H. Hudson
No word on this topic has ever passed between Mr Henry Gowan and myself.'
Little DorritCharles Dickens
This abandonment of the second topic threw him on the third.
Little DorritCharles Dickens
topic
- a subject or theme of a speech, essay, book, etc
- a subject of conversation; item of discussion
- (in rhetoric, logic, etc) a category or class of arguments or ideas which may be drawn on to furnish proofs
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Word Origin
C16: from Latin topica translating Greek ta topika, literally: matters relating to commonplaces, title of a treatise by Aristotle, from topoi, pl of topos place, commonplace
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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Word Origin and History for topic
n.
1630s, "argument suitable for debate," singular form of "Topics" (1560s), the name of a work by Aristotle on logical and rhetorical generalities, from Latin Topica, from Greek Ta Topika, literally "matters concerning topoi," from topoi "commonplaces," neuter plural of topikos "commonplace, of a place," from topos "place" (see topos). The meaning "matter treated in speech or writing, subject, theme" is first recorded 1720.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper