Idea vs. Theme

(philosophy) An abstract archetype of a given thing, compared to which real-life examples are seen as imperfect approximations; pure essence, as opposed to actual examples.

(obsolete) The conception of someone or something as representing a perfect example; an ideal.

(obsolete) The form or shape of something; a quintessential aspect or characteristic.

An image of an object that is formed in the mind or recalled by the memory.

Example: ‘The mere idea of you is enough to excite me.’;

More generally, any result of mental activity; a thought, a notion; a way of thinking.

A conception in the mind of something to be done; a plan for doing something, an intention.

Example: ‘I have an idea of how we might escape.’;

A purposeful aim or goal; intent

Example: ‘If you keep sweet-talking her like that, you're going to talk her right out of her pants.’;

A vague or fanciful notion; a feeling or hunch; an impression.

Example: ‘He had the wild idea that if he leant forward a little, he might be able to touch the mountain-top.’;

(music) A musical theme or melodic subject.

The transcript, image, or picture of a visible object, that is formed by the mind; also, a similar image of any object whatever, whether sensible or spiritual.

Example: ‘Her sweet idea wandered through his thoughts.’; ‘Being the right idea of your fatherBoth in your form and nobleness of mind.’; ‘This representation or likeness of the object being transmitted from thence [the senses] to the imagination, and lodged there for the view and observation of the pure intellect, is aptly and properly called its idea.’;

A general notion, or a conception formed by generalization.

Example: ‘Alice had not the slightest idea what latitude was.’;

Hence: Any object apprehended, conceived, or thought of, by the mind; a notion, conception, or thought; the real object that is conceived or thought of.

Example: ‘Whatsoever the mind perceives in itself, or as the immediate object of perception, thought, or undersanding, that I call idea.’;

A belief, option, or doctrine; a characteristic or controlling principle; as, an essential idea; the idea of development.

Example: ‘That fellow seems to me to possess but one idea, and that is a wrong one.’; ‘What is now "idea" for us? How infinite the fall of this word, since the time where Milton sang of the Creator contemplating his newly-created world, -"how it showed . . . Answering his great idea," -to its present use, when this person "has an idea that the train has started," and the other "had no idea that the dinner would be so bad!"’;

A plan or purpose of action; intention; design.

Example: ‘I shortly afterwards set off for that capital, with an idea of undertaking while there the translation of the work.’;

A rational conception; the complete conception of an object when thought of in all its essential elements or constituents; the necessary metaphysical or constituent attributes and relations, when conceived in the abstract.

A fiction object or picture created by the imagination; the same when proposed as a pattern to be copied, or a standard to be reached; one of the archetypes or patterns of created things, conceived by the Platonists to have excited objectively from eternity in the mind of the Deity.

Example: ‘Thence to behold this new-created world,The addition of his empire, how it showedIn prospect from his throne, how good, how fair,Answering his great idea.’;

the content of cognition; the main thing you are thinking about;

Example: ‘it was not a good idea’; ‘the thought never entered my mind’;

a personal view;

Example: ‘he has an idea that we don't like him’;

an approximate calculation of quantity or degree or worth;

Example: ‘an estimate of what it would cost’; ‘a rough idea how long it would take’;

your intention; what you intend to do;

Example: ‘he had in mind to see his old teacher’; ‘the idea of the game is to capture all the pieces’;

(music) melodic subject of a musical composition;

Example: ‘the theme is announced in the first measures’; ‘the accompanist picked up the idea and elaborated it’;

a thought or suggestion as to a possible course of action

Example: ‘recently, the idea of linking pay to performance has caught on’; ‘it's a good idea to do some research before you go’;

a mental impression

Example: ‘our menu list will give you some idea of how interesting a low-fat diet can be’;

an opinion or belief

Example: ‘nineteenth-century ideas about drinking’;

the aim or purpose

Example: ‘I took a job with the idea of getting some money together’;

(in Platonic thought) an eternally existing pattern of which individual things in any class are imperfect copies.

(in Kantian thought) a concept of pure reason, not empirically based in experience.

In common usage and in philosophy, ideas are abstract concepts. Also in philosophy, ideas can also be mental representational images of some object.

A subject of a talk or an artistic piece; a topic.

A recurring idea; a motif.

(dated) An essay written for school.

(music) The main melody of a piece of music, especially one that is the source of variations.

A song, or a snippet of a song, that identifies a film, a TV program, a character, etc. by playing at the appropriate time.

The collection of color schemes, sounds, artwork etc., that "skin" an environment towards a particular motif.

(grammar) The stem of a word.

(linguistics) thematic relation of a noun phrase to a verb.

(linguistics) Theta role in generative grammar and government and binding theory.

(linguistics) Topic, what is generally being talked about, as opposed to rheme.

A regional unit of organisation in the Byzantine empire.

(transitive) To give a theme to.

Example: ‘We themed the birthday party around superheroes.’;

To apply a theme to; to change the visual appearance and/or layout of (software).

A subject or topic on which a person writes or speaks; a proposition for discussion or argument; a text.

Example: ‘My theme is alway one and ever was.’; ‘And when a soldier was the theme, my nameWas not far off.’;

Discourse on a certain subject.

Example: ‘Then ran repentance and rehearsed his theme.’; ‘It was the subject of my theme.’;

A composition or essay required of a pupil.

A noun or verb, not modified by inflections; also, that part of a noun or verb which remains unchanged (except by euphonic variations) in declension or conjugation; stem.

That by means of which a thing is done; means; instrument.

The leading subject of a composition or a movement.

the subject matter of a conversation or discussion;

Example: ‘he didn't want to discuss that subject’; ‘it was a very sensitive topic’; ‘his letters were always on the theme of love’;

a unifying idea that is a recurrent element in a literary or artistic work;

Example: ‘it was the usual `boy gets girl' theme’;

(music) melodic subject of a musical composition;

Example: ‘the theme is announced in the first measures’; ‘the accompanist picked up the idea and elaborated it’;

an essay (especially one written as an assignment);

Example: ‘he got an A on his composition’;

(linguistics) the form of a word after all affixes are removed;

Example: ‘thematic vowels are part of the stem’;

provide with a particular theme or motive;

Example: ‘the restaurant often themes its menus’;