trope
/tɹoʊp/noun, verb
trope is spelled T-R-O-P-E: 5 letters. It appears 1.3 times per million words in written English, the 25,367th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, trope means “Something recurring across a genre or type of art or literature; a motif” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of trope is tropes.
How many letters and syllables are in trope?
| Letters | 5: T-R-O-P-E |
|---|---|
| In writing | 1.3 times per million words; the 25,367th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Rhymes with | |
| Same letters |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How common is trope?
Trope appears 1.3 times per million words in written English, the 25,367th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce trope?
- UK /tɹəʊp/
- UK [tɹ̥əʊp]
- US /tɹoʊp/
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-trope.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Words people confuse with trope
Also written: trop.
Sources: English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).
What rhymes with trope?
The 12 most written words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as trope from its last stressed vowel (/oʊp/):
Spelled with the same letters in another order: petro, repot, toper.
Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).
Forms of trope
- tropes plural, present, singular, he/she/it
- troping participle, present
- troped participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does trope mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
Something recurring across a genre or type of art or literature; a motif.
- 2
An addition (of dialogue, song, music, etc.) to a standard element of the liturgy, serving as an embellishment.
- 3
A figure of speech in which words or phrases are used with a nonliteral or figurative meaning, such as a metaphor.
- 4
A tangent space meeting a quartic surface in a conic.
- 5
archaicThe reciprocal of a node on a surface.
- 6
A short cadence at the end of the melody in some early music.
- 7
A pair of complementary hexachords in twelve-tone technique.
- 8
A cantillation pattern, or one of the marks that represents it.
verb
- 1
To use, or embellish something with, a trope.
- 2
To represent something figuratively or metaphorically, especially as a literary motif.
- 3
To turn into, coin, or create a new trope.
- 4
To analyse a work in terms of its literary tropes.
- 5
To think or write in terms of tropes.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Trope in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | motif , trope, expression figurative |
| German | Prototyp , Tropus, Trope |
| Portuguese | tópos |
| Spanish | tópico, motivo , tropo |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does trope come from?
From Latin tropus, from Ancient Greek τρόπος (trópos, “a manner, style, turn, way; a trope or figure of speech; a mode in music; a mode or mood in logic”), related to τροπή (tropḗ, “solstice; trope; turn”) and τρέπειν (trépein, “to turn”); compare turn of phrase. The verb is derived from the noun.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).