- 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.
- a phrase, sentence, or verse formerly interpolated in a liturgical text to amplify or embellish.
- a recurring theme or motif, as in literature or art:the trope of motherhood;the heroic trope.
- a convention or device that establishes a predictable or stereotypical representation of a character, setting, or scenario in a creative work:From her introduction in the movie, the character is nothing but a Damsel in Distress trope.The author relies on our knowledge of the Haunted House trope to set the scene.
- (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.
- 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.
- a word or expression used in a figurative sense
- an interpolation of words or music into the plainsong settings of the Roman Catholic liturgy
- indicating a turning towards, development in the direction of, or affinity to
