leitmotif

Or leit·mo·tiv

[lahyt-moh-teef]

noun

1. a motif or theme associated throughout a music drama with a particular person, situation, or idea.

2. a unifying or dominant motif; a recurrent theme.

   A leitmotif in science fiction is the evolving relationship between humans and machines.

leitmotif

/ ˈlaɪtməʊˌtiːf /

noun

1. music a recurring short melodic phrase or theme used, esp in Wagnerian music dramas, to suggest a character, thing, etc

2. an often repeated word, phrase, image, or theme in a literary work

leitmotif

1. A frequently recurring bit of melody, usually in opera, associated with a person, thing, or emotion; Leitmotiv is German for “leading theme.” The leitmotif may be heard in the instrumental or the vocal part.

Recurring themes or subjects in other forms of art or literature are sometimes also called leitmotifs.

Leitmotifs are particularly associated with the operas of Richard Wagner.

Word History and Origins

Origin of leitmotif¹

First recorded in 1875–80; from German: “leading motive”

Word History and Origins

Origin of leitmotif¹

C19: from German leitmotiv leading motif

Example Sentences

Scorsese’s faith, and his battles with it, provide something of a leitmotif of the series — is he a saint or a sinner?

Read more on Los Angeles Times

The book is crowded with characters, but “Sunshine Charlie” Mitchell, the head of National City Bank of New York, provides a sort of leitmotif.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

The Argentine author, whose writing habitually draws on the uncanny, here delivers a blend of superstition, dread and a leitmotif of mental instability in a register of acute psychological realism.

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Its leitmotif is push and pull: unsettling, bruising, often brutal, yet ultimately life-affirming.

Read more on BBC

He composed new leitmotifs for wonder, for adventure, for danger.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

Related Words

• argument 
• line 
• matter 
• motif 
• point 
• problem 
• question 
• stuff 
• subject 
• text 
• thought 
• topic