This website uses cookies to ensure you get the best experience. Learn more

Another word for motif

a-z
Noun

  1. An element or a component in a decorative composition

      1. The art or practice of designing or making designs:
      2. A reasoned purpose; an intent:
      3. The purposeful or inventive arrangement of parts or details:
      1. A decorative design, figure, or pattern, as one used in embroidery.
      2. A design, often with a motto, on a coat of arms; heraldic emblem
      3. An ornamental figure or design
      1. Impression or appearance made:
      2. The shape or form of a human body:
      3. An artistic design in fabrics, etc.; pattern
      1. A motif in art, literature, or music.
      2. An emotion, desire, physiological need, or similar impulse that acts as an incitement to action.
      3. Some inner drive, impulse, intention, etc. that causes a person to do something or act in a certain way; incentive; goal
      1. A model or plan used as a guide in making things; set of forms to the shape of which material is cut for assembly into the finished article
      2. An arrangement of form; disposition of parts or elements; design
      3. A usually repeating artistic or decorative design:
    See also:

    part

© Roget’s II: The New Thesaurus Copyright © 2010 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Cleveland, Ohio. Used by arrangement with John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Another word for motif

Noun
      1. A course or area of study:
      2. One who is under surveillance:
      3. A person or animal that is the object of medical or scientific study:
      1. A heading or item in an outline
      2. (Linguistics) A word or phrase in a sentence, usually providing information from previous discourse or shared knowledge, that the rest of the sentence elaborates or comments on.
      3. A subject of discussion or conversation.
      1. A dominant theme or underlying pattern
      2. A short, recurring musical phrase or theme, esp. as used in Wagnerian opera to represent a given character, emotion, etc.
      3. A melodic passage or phrase, especially in Wagnerian opera, associated with a specific character, situation, or element.
    See also:

    theme

© WEBSTER’S NEW WORLD® ROGET’S A-Z THESAURUS by Charlton Laird and the editors of Webster’s New World dictionaries. Copyright © 1999 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Sentence Examples

  • The dome is the leading idea or motif in Byzantine ecclesiastical architecture; the domes are placed over square, not circular apartments, and their bases are brought to a circle by means of pendentives.

  • As regards the sources of the narrative part of the Periodoi, it is possible that the "recognition" motif was a literary commonplace.

  • This view is maintained by Richard von Muth in his Einleitung in das Nibelungenlied (Paderborn, 1877), who thus sums up the result of his critical researches: "The basis of all is an old myth of a beneficent divine being (Siegfried), who conquers daemonic powers (the Nibelungen), but is slain by them (the Burgundians turned Nibelungen); with this myth was connected the destruction of the Burgundian kingdom, ascribed to Attila, between 437 and 453, and later the legend of Attila's murder by his wife; in this form, after Attila and Theodoric had been associated in it, the legend penetrated, between 555 and 583, to the North, where its second part was developed in detail on the analogy of older sagas, while in Germany a complete change of the old motif took place."

  • passion flower motif on the purple stole.

  • Wedding invitations set the tone for the rest of the wedding and establish a motif or theme that can be carried throughout the rest of the wedding décor, from place cards to table numbers to programs, favors, and food packaging.

More sentences →

Related Articles

More Articles →

Words near motif in the Thesaurus