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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

leitmotif.

A melodic theme associated with a particular character, place, thing or idea in an opera.

9 characters3 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ˈlaɪt.məʊˌtiːf/Received-Pronunciation/ˈlaɪt.moʊˌtif/US/ˈleɪt.moʊˌtif/US, nonstandard/ˈlaɪt.moʊˌtɪv/US, nonstandard
  1. A melodic theme associated with a particular character, place, thing or idea in an opera.

  2. A recurring theme.

    broadly
Where this word comes from

From German Leitmotiv (“leading motif”), from leiten (“to lead”) + Motiv (“motif”), originally used to describe Wagnerian opera. The spelling was influenced by motif.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.