Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A melodic passage or phrase, especially in Wagnerian opera, associated with a specific character, situation, or element.
- n. A dominant and recurring theme, as in a novel.
Wiktionary
- n. music A melodic theme associated with a particular character, place, thing or idea in an opera.
- n. A recurring theme.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. (Mus.) a guiding theme; in Wagnerian opera, a marked melodic phrase or short musical passage which always accompanies the reappearance of a certain person, situation, abstract idea, or allusion in the course of the play; a sort of musical label. Also called Leading motive.
- n. a recurring theme in the activities of a person or group.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a melodic phrase that accompanies the reappearance of a person or situation (as in Wagner's operas)
Etymologies
- From German Leitmotiv ("leading motive"), from leiten ("to lead") + Motiv ("motive"), originally used to describe Wagnerian opera. (Wiktionary)
- German Leitmotiv : leiten, to lead (from Middle High German, from Old High German leitan; see leit- in Indo-European roots) + Motiv, motif (from French motif; see motif). (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“But also I think the use of leitmotif is one of the ways in which you can tie together a narrative that is otherwise quite separated.”
“With the no-doubt unintended effect of suggesting that Wallace's menace and ensuing mayhem might, in hindsight, be laughed-off like a good-ol'-boy joke, "George Wallace: Settin 'the Woods on Fire" takes part of its title, and its misguided musical leitmotif from a wacky, Hank Williams party-hearty song.”
“WHY: The exhibition Last One will show Kozyrev's works from the artist's two latest series Lost Edge and Last One, in which his leitmotif is the ruin or fragment.”
“Worried, I look around and see what happens, I'm not their leitmotif, which is the base of their lives: Violence, hatred and death, because too many people remained silent.”
“Guwahati, April 5: Machor tenga, a sweet-and-sour curry which has come to be known as the leitmotif of the Assamese kitchen, has gone global.”
“Readers have been captivated by "Invincible," the sweeping wow power leveling new musical piece released by Blizzard wow gold recalling the leitmotif of the wow power leveling Wrath of the Lich King trailer.”
“Readers have been wedding dresses wow power leveling wow gold captivated by "Invincible," wedding dresses the sweeping wow power leveling new musical piece released by Blizzard recalling the leitmotif of the Wrath of the Lich King trailer.”
“Worried I look around and see what happens, I'm not their leitmotif, which is the base of their lives: Violence, hatred and death, because too many people remained silent.”
“Readers have been captivated by "Invincible," the sweeping new musical piece released by Blizzard recalling the leitmotif of the”
“But then, it's not, because it's set at Christmas, and there's a kind of leitmotif of churchbells ringing through it and there are two parallel stories of a flu epidemic in Oxford enough in the future to enable time travel and then the plague story in the Oxford at the time when the plague broke out.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘leitmotif’.
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New words
new words or spelling issues
voluble, Metagrobolize, salubrious, calumny, fugacity, withdrawal, bourse, hypertrophy, leitmotif, argot, improvident, damask and 238 more...
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Distinguishing Marks
assay-mark, stamp, seal, cedula, cartouse, cachet, brand, mark, hallmark, armorial device, coat of arms, emblem and 150 more...
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Ballardian
All things descriptive from JG
Ballardoperation mindfuck, pataphysics, wahrheitssensible..., polymorphism, postprandial, covalent, stygian, lucus a non lucendo, kafkaesque, leitmotif, fugacious, ablate and 77 more...
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tatterdemalion's list
chrysalis, colloquy, peroration, syncretism, dickering, gamelan, dictatress, adventurism, untenable, presumption of fa..., lovelorn, bawdily and 47 more...
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Music
musical terms
ritornello, tutti, rondo, polyphony, monody, monophony, homophony, leitmotif
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Vega's Logophile Dictionary
Words I've heard/read in use, words being learnt, words that I want to eventually use in everyday language, words that are high-brow and elitist and scholarly and obscure, words that display the wo...
parsimonious, torpor, recalcitrant, plebeian, vitriol, gumption, augur, aestival, celerity, diaphanous, farrago, nonpareil and 287 more...
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Mat8iou's interesting words
Words I've come across & want to remember.
bloviation, elginism, panegyric, infandous, boke, pangram, quine, pareto principle, panopticon, snib, escutcheon, bokeh and 129 more...
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BonMots
assiduous, progeny, hegemony, nascent, reticent, ephemera, zeitgeist, recalcitrant, copious, corporeal, cacaphonous, obstreperous and 108 more...
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bintalshamsa's list
My Favorite Words
weltschmerz, perspicacity, idée fixe, invigilator, salubrious, tchotchke, ex nihilo, invidious, malapropism, naïve, sardonic, elide and 1402 more...
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je les adore!
fusillade, foal, celestial, abattoir, byzantium, berlin, casablanca, babylon, balkans, albion, avalon, between the devil... and 471 more...
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NTDW1
template, modal, sublingual, tandem, polycentric, septuagenarian, token, irrevocable, denotive, augural, aberrant, phlebotomy and 1188 more...
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Listless
Nowhere else to put these yet.
sibilant, cloying, pithy, apologia, odyssey, amanuensis, pleasantries, ginormous, burnish, sojourn, quonset, over-under and 217 more...
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Dain's Words
rabble, terminus, archaic, atavism, demiurge, waylay, syzygy, jocoserious, quark, entropy, cinnabar, shamble and 912 more...
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music / lit
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Umbersorrow
Intangible, anthropic.
States of being are listed on oofy.njiju, glark, deplore, afterlithe, tagmass, spuriosity, forkful, chelation, oding, ploat, botnet, quedeship and 477 more...
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the omnibus
preponderance, idioglossia, acumen, heteronym, flux, anacoluthon, metonymy, impetus, constellation, exegesis, revelatory, cloistered and 877 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for leitmotif.
dontcry duh-dum, duh-dum, duh-dum, (enter Jaws shark)...no? Apr 30, 2008
shadytrees Best modern example? Arrested Development Apr 28, 2008
uselessness *hums the Imperial March* Oct 3, 2007