A trope in its original sense is any instance of figurative (non-literal) language, such as a metaphor, hyperbole, or personification. It has also broadened to mean any commonly recurring idea, phrase, image, artistic technique, artistic element, or cliché.
Arts, literature, and communication Literary device, any intentional or special use of language Narrative device, any intentional technique for conveying a story Genre trope, or genre convention, a recurring element that traditionally appears across various stories Fantasy trope, any common element across works of the fantasy genre Trope (cinema), any common convention or technique used in filmmaking Plot device, any technique that drives a story's plot forward Motif (narrative), any recurring element within one particular story Trope (music), an addition to a piece of medieval music Trope (politics), the common use of a particular biased narrative or message for political purposes
Philosophy and religion Trope (philosophy), any of various technical terms in philosophy Hebrew cantillation, trope, or trop, the chanting of readings from the Hebrew Bible
Science and technology Trope (mathematics), an archaic geometry term for a tangent line or plane Tropidophiidae, or tropes, a family of dwarf boa snakes Tropes Zoom, a desktop search-engine software
People Michael Trope (born 1951), American trial lawyer and former sports agent
See also
TV Tropes, a wiki for conventions and devices found within creative works