trope (trəʊp
)
Definitions
noun
- 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
C16: from Latin tropus figurative use of a word, from Greek tropos style, turn; related to trepein to turn-trope
Definitions
combining form in countable noun
- indicating a turning towards, development in the direction of, or affinity to ⇒
heliotrope
Word Origin
from Greek tropos a turnUsage examples
This is a novel that handily subverts that ancient trope of the hero's epic quest to regain the precious thing that has been lost.
Globe and Mail (2003)Rick Moody seems to see in him a model for all that is dark and strange in himself, and this trope is briefly interesting.
Times, Sunday Times (2002)Perhaps, Stevenson suggests (in a trope that would become familiar in psychoanalysis), they are essentially the same.
, ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON (2005)