theme

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

• noun A topic of discourse or discussion. synonym: subject.
• noun A subject of artistic representation.
• noun An implicit or recurrent idea; a motif.
• noun A short composition assigned to a student as a writing exercise.
• noun Music A recurring melodic element in a composition, especially a melody forming the basis of a set of variations.
• noun A stem.

from The Century Dictionary.

• noun In astrology, a figure of nativity.
• noun A subject or topic on which a person writes or speaks; anything proposed as a subject of discourse or discussion.
• noun That which is said or thought on a given topic.
• noun Question; subject; matter.
• noun A short dissertation composed by a student on a given subject; a brief essay; a school composition; a thesis.
• noun In philology, the part of a noun or verb to which inflectional endings are added; stem; base.
• noun In music, same as subject. The term is sometimes extended to a short melody from which a set of variations is developed.
• noun That by which a thing is done; an instrument; a means.
• noun A division for the purpose of provincial administration under the Byzantine empire. There were twenty-nine themes, twelve in Europe and seventeen in Asia. Also thema.
• noun In logic, same as thema, 3.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

• noun A subject or topic on which a person writes or speaks; a proposition for discussion or argument; a text.
• noun Discourse on a certain subject.
• noun A composition or essay required of a pupil.
• noun (Gram.) A noun or verb, not modified by inflections; also, that part of a noun or verb which remains unchanged (except by euphonic variations) in declension or conjugation; stem.
• noun obsolete That by means of which a thing is done; means; instrument.
• noun (Mus.) The leading subject of a composition or a movement.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

• noun A subject of a talk or an artistic piece; a topic.
• noun A recurring idea; a motif.
• noun music The main melody of a piece of music, especially one that is the source of variations.
• noun computing, figuratively The collection of color schemes, sounds, artwork etc., that "skin" an environment towards a particular motif.
• noun grammar The stem of a word
• noun linguistics thematic relation of a noun phrase to a verb
• noun linguistics Theta role in generative grammar and government and binding theory.
• noun linguistics Topic, what is being talked about, as opposed to rheme
• noun A regional unit of organisation in the Byzantine empire.
• verb computing, transitive To apply a theme to; to change the visual appearance and/or layout of (software).

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

• noun the subject matter of a conversation or discussion
• noun an essay (especially one written as an assignment)
• noun (linguistics) the form of a word after all affixes are removed
• noun (music) melodic subject of a musical composition
• noun a unifying idea that is a recurrent element in literary or artistic work
• verb provide with a particular theme or motive