topic
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English
Alternative forms
- topick (obsolete)
Etymology
From Latin topica, from Ancient Greek τοπικός (topikós, “pertaining to a place, local, pertaining to a common place, or topic, topical”), from τόπος (tópos, “a place”), of Pre-Greek origin.
Pronunciation
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ˈtɒpɪk/
- (General American) IPA(key): /ˈtɑpɪk/
Audio (US) (file) - Rhymes: -ɒpɪk
- Hyphenation: top‧ic
Adjective
topic
Noun
topic (plural topics)
- Subject; theme; a category or general area of interest.
- A society where a topic cannot be discussed, does not have free speech.
- stick to the topic
- an interesting topic of conversation
- romance is a topic that frequently comes up in conversation
- 2013 August 3, “The machine of a new soul”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8847:
- The yawning gap in neuroscientists’ understanding of their topic is in the intermediate scale of the brain’s anatomy.
- (Internet) Discussion thread.
- (music) A musical sign intended to suggest a particular style or genre.
- 2012, Esti Sheinberg, Music Semiotics, page 9:
- In Peircean terms, topics are interpretants: signifieds that become new signifiers in the endless semiotic chain of interpretations.
- (obsolete) An argument or reason.
- 1675, John Wilkins, Of the Principle and Duties of Natural Religion:
- contumacious persons, who are not to be fixed by any principles, whom no topics can work upon
- (obsolete, medicine) An external local application or remedy, such as a plaster, a blister, etc.
- 1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy: , 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Printed by John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC:
- Amongst topics or outward medicines none are more precious than baths.
Synonyms
- (area of interest): subject, subject area
Derived terms
Translations
subject; theme
|
discussion thread — see thread
Further reading
- “topic”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
- “topic”, in The Century Dictionary , New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.