trope

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a familiar theme, device, or convention that recurs in a type of story, art, or discussion

   The reluctant hero is a familiar trope in adventure stories.

2. 2
   noun

   a figure of speech in which a word or phrase is used figuratively rather than literally

   The critic examined each trope in the poet's description of winter.

3. 3
   noun

   historical: an addition of words or music to a standard passage in a medieval liturgy

   The choir reconstructed a tenth-century trope for the recording.

From Latin tropus, borrowed from Ancient Greek tropos, 'turn, way, or manner,' related to trepein, 'to turn.' A rhetorical trope is therefore a turn from a word's ordinary meaning.

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