topic

See also: topić, tòpic, topíc, Topič, and topič

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

1. topical

Noun

topic (plural topics)

1. 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.

2. (Internet) Discussion thread.
3. (computing) A component similar to a message queue which supports multiple subscribers.
4. (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.

5. (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

6. (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: […] 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

• drop the topic
• off topic
• off-topic
• on topic
• on-topic
• subtopic
• supertopic
• -topic
• topical
• topic map
• topic of conversation
• topic sentence

 

Translations

subject; theme

• Afrikaans: onderwerp
• Albanian: temë (sq) f
• Arabic: مَوْضُوع (ar) m (mawḍūʕ), plural: مَوَاضِيع m pl (mawāḍīʕ)
• Armenian: թեմա (hy) (tʻema), առարկա (hy) (aṙarka), նյութ (hy) (nyutʻ)
• Azerbaijani: mövzu (az), tema (az)
• Basque: gai
• Belarusian: тэ́ма f (téma), прадме́т (be) m (pradmjét)
• Bengali: প্রসঙ্গ (bn) (prośoṅgo), বিষয় (bn) (biśoẏ)
• Bulgarian: те́ма (bg) f (téma), предме́т (bg) m (predmét)
• Burmese: အကြောင်း (my) (a.kraung:)
• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 主題／主题 (zyu² tai⁴), 話題／话题 (waa⁶ tai⁴)

  Mandarin: 主題／主题 (zh) (zhǔtí), 話題／话题 (zh) (huàtí)

• Czech: téma (cs) n, předmět (cs) m
• Danish: emne n, tema n
• Dutch: onderwerp (nl) n, thema (nl) n
• Esperanto: temo (eo)
• Estonian: teema (et)
• Faroese: evni m
• Finnish: aihe (fi), teema (fi)
• French: sujet (fr) m, thème (fr) m
• Georgian: თემა (tema)
• German: Thema (de) n
• Greek: θέμα (el) n (théma)

  Ancient: θέμα n (théma), τόπος m (tópos)

• Hebrew: נוֹשֵׂא (he) m (nosé)
• Hindi: प्रसंग (hi) m (prasaṅg), विषय (hi) m (viṣay)
• Hungarian: téma (hu)
• Icelandic: efni (is) n, þema n
• Indonesian: topik (id), tema (id)
• Irish: téama m
• Italian: tema (it) m, categoria (it) f, argomento (it) m, soggetto (it) m
• Japanese: 話題 (ja) (わだい, wadai), テーマ (ja) (tēma), トピック (ja) (topikku), 主題 (ja) (しゅだい, shudai)
• Kazakh: тақырып (kk) (taqyryp), тема (tema)
• Khmer: អង្គសេចក្តី (ʼɑng sackdəy), សាច់រឿង (sac rɨəng), អត្ថរស (km) (ʼatthaʼrŭəh)
• Korean: 화제(話題) (ko) (hwaje), 주제(主題) (ko) (juje), 테마 (tema), 토픽 (topik), 쩨마 (ko) (jjema) (North Korea)
• Kurdish:

  Northern Kurdish: mewzû (ku), babet (ku) m, mijar (ku) f

• Kyrgyz: тема (ky) (tema)
• Lao: ກະທູ້ (lo) (ka thū), ຫົວຂໍ້ (hūa khǭ)
• Latin: thema (la) n
• Latvian: temats m
• Lithuanian: tema (lt) f
• Macedonian: тема f (tema)
• Malay: topik (ms), tema (ms)
• Manx: bun-chooish f
• Maori: marau, kaupapa, takawhetanga nā te ngutu
• Mongolian:

  Cyrillic: сэдэв (mn) (sedev)

• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: emne n, tema (no) n

  Nynorsk: emne n, tema n

• Old English: andtimber n
• Ottoman Turkish: موضوع (mevzu)
• Pashto: موضوع (ps) f (mawzo')
• Persian:

  Dari: مَوْضُوع (mawzū')

  Iranian Persian: مُوْضوع (mowzu'), تِم (fa) (tem), مَطْلَب (fa) (matlab)

• Polish: temat (pl) m, przedmiot (pl) m
• Portuguese: tópico (pt) m, assunto (pt) m
• Romanian: temă (ro) f, subiect (ro) n
• Romansch: tema m
• Russian: те́ма (ru) f (téma), предме́т (ru) m (predmét), то́пик (ru) m (tópik) (esp. on the internet)
• Sanskrit: विषय (sa) m (viṣaya)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: те́ма f

  Roman: téma (sh) f

• Slovak: téma f, predmet (sk) m
• Slovene: tema (sl) f
• Sotho: sehlooho, hlooho
• Spanish: tema (es) m, tópico (es) m (America), asunto (es) m
• Swedish: samtalsämne (sv) n, ämne (sv) n, tema (sv) n
• Tajik: мавзӯъ (mavzüʾ), тема (tema)
• Thai: หัวข้อ (th) (hǔua-kɔ̂ɔ), กระทู้ (th) (grà-túu)
• Turkish: mevzu (tr), tema (tr)
• Turkmen: tema, mowzuk
• Ukrainian: те́ма (uk) f (téma), предме́т (uk) m (predmét)
• Urdu: مَوضُوع m (mauzū')
• Uyghur: ماۋزۇ (mawzu), تېما (tëma)
• Uzbek: mavzu (uz), tema (uz)
• Vietnamese: chủ đề (vi) (主題)
• Yiddish: טעמע (yi) f (teme)
• Zulu: isihloko class 7/8

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.

Anagrams

• cop it, optic, picot