trope

play

noun \ˈtrōp\

Definition of trope

1a : a word or expression used in a figurative sense : figure of speechb : a common or overused theme or device : cliché the usual horror movie tropes
2 : a phrase or verse added as an embellishment or interpolation to the sung parts of the Mass in the Middle Ages

See trope defined for English-language learners

Examples of trope in a Sentence

a screenplay that reads like a catalog of mystery-thriller tropes

Recent Examples of trope from the Web

The faithful-slave trope was the ultimate example of southern paternalism that described the master-slave relationship as essentially familial, existing outside of market forces.

— micki mcelya, The Atlantic, "The Faithful Slave", 31 May 2017
The novel makes too much use of shopworn archetypes—a seductive housekeeper, a self-sacrificing prostitute—but Altan deftly pushes the tropes of detective fiction into existentialist territory.

— sarah hutto, The New Yorker, "Briefly Noted", 29 May 2017
The identical twin trope harkening back to Episode Five, when the man claiming to be God said Jesus's resurrection was actually just people seeing his identical twin brother.

— michael sebastian, Esquire, "Here's An Insane Leftovers Theory: Kevin Garvey Has Been Dead This Whole Time", 28 May 2017
In a camp full of grizzled veterans and wounded warriors, Reyes doesn’t fit Hollywood tropes of a longtime guerrilla.

— jim wyss, miamiherald, "With peace in sight, a guerrilla in Colombia faces a choice. FARC or family?", 26 May 2017
To reveal more about how the relationships between Chloe, Paul and Louis unfold would be to spoil the funhouse of motifs (mirrors, duh!), references and thriller tropes that Ozon has assembled with great flair and an infectious sense of mischief.

— jon frosch, The Hollywood Reporter, "'L'Amant double': Film Review | Cannes 2017", 25 May 2017
The reason the book is called Deviate is to be a trope for people to see differently—to deviate.

— National Geographic, "The Amazing Ways Your Brain Determines What You See", 21 May 2017
Need a primer on all the ways our apprehensions about the Internet have manifested into big screen tropes?

— jordan crucchiola, Wired News, "Unfriended and Horror's Long Tradition of Fearing New Tech", 17 Apr. 2015
Ubiquitous computing is MUCH more mind-stretching and visionary than bog-standard, 40 year old STAR TREK space-opera tropes.

— bruce sterling, WIRED, "Designing Post-Human Everyware In Far Futurity", 26 May 2009

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'trope'. Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.