n. 1 a subject or topic on which a person speaks, writes, or thinks. 2 Mus. a prominent or frequently recurring melody or group of notes in a composition. 3 US a school exercise, esp. an essay, on a given subject. 4 Gram. the stem of a noun or verb; the part to which inflections are added, esp. composed of the root and an added vowel. 5 hist. any of the 29 provinces in the Byzantine empire. theme park an amusement park organized round a unifying idea. theme song (or tune) 1 a recurrent melody in a musical play or film. 2 a signature tune.
[ ME teme ult. f. Gk thema -matos f. tithemi set, place ]