Leitmotiv

noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    Alternative form of leitmotif. alt-of, alternative

    "In the domain of purely instrumental music, to which leitmotive are perfectly adapted in the realization of ‘programme music’, the earliest examples are to be found in the Symphonie Fantastique of Berlioz, where what he terms idée fixe is used in the manner of a ‘leitmotiv’."

  2. 2
    a melodic phrase that accompanies the reappearance of a person or situation (as in Wagner's operas) wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
figureleitmotifmotifmotivephrasesubject

Example

More examples

"In the domain of purely instrumental music, to which leitmotive are perfectly adapted in the realization of ‘programme music’, the earliest examples are to be found in the Symphonie Fantastique of Berlioz, where what he terms idée fixe is used in the manner of a ‘leitmotiv’."

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.