# theme
## English
### Etymology

From Middle English teme, from Old French teme, tesme (French thème), from Latin thema, from Ancient Greek θέμα (théma), from τίθημι (títhēmi, “I put, place”), reduplicative from Proto-Indo-European *dʰeh₁- (“to put, place, do”) (whence also English do). Doublet of thema.

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /θiːm/
* Audio (US):(file)
* Hyphenation: theme
* Rhymes: -iːm (for all senses)
* Rhymes: -iːmi (for the sense dealing with the Byzantine empire only) (Can we verify this pronunciation?)

### Noun

theme (plural themes)
* A subject, now especially of a talk or an artistic piece; a topic.
** 1828, James Hogg, Mary Burnet:"Had not you once a beautiful daughter, named Mary?" said the stranger. "It is a heartrending question, man," said Andrew; "but certes, I had once a beloved daughter named Mary." "What became of her?" asked the stranger. Andrew shook his head, turned round, and began to move away; it was a theme that his heart could not brook.
* A recurring idea; a motif.
** A concept with multiple instantiations.
    variations on the theme of entrepreneurial resourcefulness
** Any of various colors, or color palettes, in which a design is offered; (graphical user interface) any of various skins for an app, affecting the visuals and perhaps other elements such as sound effects.
    Synonym: colorway
    switch to a dark theme to conserve battery power
* (dated) An essay written for school.
** 1917, James Joyce, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man:Father Dolan came in today and pandied me because I was not writing my theme.
** 1979, Tri-Quarterly, numbers 46-47, page 273:[…] his themes and exercises were in constant demand for what we called cogging and American students rather grandly called plagiarization.
* (music) The main melody of a piece of music, especially one that is the source of variations.
* (film, television, video games) A song, or a snippet of a song, that identifies a film, a TV program, a character, etc. by playing at the appropriate time.
* (crosswording) An additional puzzle within the crossword, typically involving a set of non-standard clues or answers.
* (grammar) The stem of a word.
* (linguistics) Thematic relation of a noun phrase to a verb.
* (linguistics) Theta role in generative grammar and government and binding theory.
* (linguistics) Topic, what is generally being talked about.
    Coordinate terms: rheme, comment
* A regional unit of organisation in the Byzantine empire.

#### Related terms

* thema
* thematic
* thematisation
* thematise
* theme music
* theme park
* theme song
* theme tune

#### Translations

    The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

### Verb

theme (third-person singular simple present themes, present participle theming, simple past and past participle themed)
* (transitive) To give a theme to.
    We themed the birthday party around superheroes.
* (computing, transitive) To apply a theme to; to change the visual appearance and/or layout of (software).

### References

* Theme on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

### Anagrams

* Hemet

## Middle English
### Etymology 1
#### Noun

theme (plural themes)
* Alternative form of teme (“topic”)

### Etymology 2
#### Pronoun

theme
* Alternative spelling of þeme (“them”)