noun, adjective, verb, themed, them⋅ing.| 1. | a subject of discourse, discussion, meditation, or composition; topic: The need for world peace was the theme of the meeting. |
| 2. | a unifying or dominant idea, motif, etc., as in a work of art. |
| 3. | a short, informal essay, esp. a school composition. |
| 4. | Music.
|
| 5. | Grammar. the element common to all or most of the forms of an inflectional paradigm, often consisting of a root with certain formative elements or modifications. Compare stem 1 (def. 16). |
| 6. | Linguistics. topic (def. 4). |
| 7. | Also, thema. an administrative division of the Byzantine Empire. |
| 8. | having a unifying theme: a theme restaurant decorated like a spaceship. |
| 9. | to provide with a theme. |

| 1. | a subject of conversation or discussion: to provide a topic for discussion. |
| 2. | the subject or theme of a discourse or of one of its parts. |
| 3. | Rhetoric, Logic. a general field of considerations from which arguments can be drawn. |
| 4. | 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. 6). |
theme (thēm) n.
Usage Problem To provide with a particular topic or motif. See Usage Note at themed. [Middle English teme, theme, from Old French tesme, from Latin thema, from Greek; see dhē- in Indo-European roots.] theme'less adj. |
A central idea in a piece of writing or other work of art: “The theme of desperation is found throughout his novels.” Also a short composition assigned to a student as a writing exercise.