Musical theme

The answer

MOTIF

5 letters. See every clue for this answer on the MOTIF answer page.

Used 7 times across 7 distinct years; most recently in 2011; first recorded in 1952. It appears in 5 publications in the xd corpus. Frequency and last-seen figures come from the xd crossword corpus only.

Other answers for this clue

The same clue has also been answered these ways in the xd corpus. Answers inside this collection link to their own answer page.

• TEMA (5 uses in xd)

Other clues for MOTIF

Every other clue in this collection answered by MOTIF, most used first.

• Recurring theme - used 95 times, most recently in 2026
• Theme - used 54 times, most recently in 2023
• Decorator's theme - used 15 times, most recently in 2025
• Dominant theme - used 15 times, most recently in 2026
• Main theme - used 12 times, most recently in 2012
• Recurrent theme - used 10 times, most recently in 2024
• Artistic theme - used 9 times, most recently in 2019
• Central theme - used 9 times, most recently in 2016
• Design theme - used 6 times, most recently in 2017
• Unifying idea - used 6 times, most recently in 2022
• Unifying theme - used 6 times, most recently in 2021

Related clues

Clues in this collection of the same answer length that share a word with this clue, or match its answer pattern when no word is shared. Most used first.

• Musical drama - OPERA, used 124 times
• Musical set in Argentina - EVITA, used 91 times
• "Tomorrow" musical - ANNIE, used 79 times
• Musical pace - TEMPO, used 60 times
• Musical sounds - TONES, used 60 times
• "Don't Cry for Me Argentina" musical - EVITA, used 48 times

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