trope

Short definition from Wiktionary

Noun

1. 1
   Something recurring across a genre or type of art or literature; a motif.
2. 2
   An addition (of dialogue, song, music, etc.) to a standard element of the liturgy, serving as an embellishment.
3. 3
   A figure of speech in which words or phrases are used with a nonliteral or figurative meaning, such as a metaphor.
4. 4
   Mathematical senses: A tangent space meeting a quartic surface in a conic.
5. 5
   Mathematical senses: The reciprocal of a node on a surface.
6. 6
   Musical senses: A short cadence at the end of the melody in some early music.
7. 7
   Musical senses: A pair of complementary hexachords in twelve-tone technique.
8. 8
   Musical senses: A cantillation pattern, or one of the marks that represents it.
9. 9
   Philosophical senses: Any of the ten arguments used in skepticism to refute dogmatism.
10. 10
    Philosophical senses: A particular instance of a property (such as the specific redness of a rose), as contrasted with a universal.

Verb

1. 1
   To use, or embellish something with, a trope.
2. 2
   Senses relating chiefly to art or literature: To represent something figuratively or metaphorically, especially as a literary motif.
3. 3
   Senses relating chiefly to art or literature: To turn into, coin, or create a new trope.
4. 4
   Senses relating chiefly to art or literature: To analyse a work in terms of its literary tropes.
5. 5
   To think or write in terms of tropes.