trope
- 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.
- a phrase, sentence, or verse formerly interpolated in a liturgical text to amplify or embellish.
- (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
-trope
- 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
Related Words for trope
symbol, image, analogy, impression, perception, figure, idea, thought, notion, vision, similitude, emblem, personification, allegory, hope, metonymy, trope, conception, conceit, constructExamples from the Web for trope
Contemporary Examples of trope
As such, they emphatically demonstrate the accuracy of the “no risk to public” trope.
On the Internet we call the inevitability of this trope “Rule 63.”
How ‘Battlestar Galactica,’ ‘Game of Thrones,’ and FanFiction Conquered Pop CultureArthur Chu
May 6, 2014
I put it as delicately as I could to my hosts, using the “some people say” trope common on cable news.
It is not a prop, or a trope, or a tool to be used either on the world stage or in spittle-flecked op-eds.
Kent Sepkowitz explains why the ‘the tryptophan in turkey means sleep’ trope persists, despite multiple debunkings.
Historical Examples of trope
You must listen to the definition of a catachresis:—'A catachresis is the boldest of any trope.
Tales And Novels, Volume 4 (of 10)Maria Edgeworth
Bene, satis, male,— Where was I with my trope 'bout one in a quag?
The Book of Humorous VerseVarious
Rage and despair do sometimes vent themselves in hyperbole and trope.
Thomas OtwayThomas Otway
For rhetoric, he could not ope / His mouth, but out there flew a trope.
The turn of expression is called a Trope, and change of construction is called a Schema.
Essays and MiscellaniesPlutarch
trope
- rhetoric a word or expression used in a figurative sense
- an interpolation of words or music into the plainsong settings of the Roman Catholic liturgy
Word Origin for trope
-trope
- indicating a turning towards, development in the direction of, or affinity toheliotrope
Word Origin for -trope
Word Origin and History for trope
1530s, from Latin tropus "a figure of speech," from Greek tropos "turn, direction, turn or figure of speech," related to trope "a turning" and trepein "to turn," from PIE root trep- "to turn" (cf. Sanskrit trapate "is ashamed, confused," properly "turns away in shame;" Latin trepit "he turns"). Technically, in rhetoric, a figure of speech which consists in the use of a word or phrase in a sense other than that which is proper to it.
-trope
word-forming element meaning "that which turns," from Greek tropos (see trope).