trope

C2 · Proficiency Countable noun Literature Formal · Technical

n. a word or phrase used in a way that is not literal, like a metaphor.

n. a figurative or metaphorical use of a word or expression; a rhetorical figure of speech.

“The poet used the trope of a fading flower to represent old age.”

“The professor's lecture focused on the use of irony as a central trope in eighteenth-century satirical pamphlets.”

C2 · Proficiency Countable noun Music Technical · Formal

n. a short piece of music or text added to a church service to make it more beautiful.

n. a phrase, sentence, or verse added to the text of the liturgy for embellishment or as a musical interpolation.

“The choir performed a medieval trope during the Christmas service.”

“Scholars argue that these liturgical tropes eventually evolved into the earliest forms of Western drama.”

C2 · Proficiency Academic · Technical

v. to use a common story idea or to turn something into a trope.

v. to represent or embellish something through the use of tropes; to turn a concept into a recurring motif.

“The director decided to trope the detective's dark past using black-and-white flashbacks.”

“The author tends to trope historical events, transforming complex political realities into simplified narrative symbols.”