leitmotif
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Scorsese’s faith, and his battles with it, provide something of a leitmotif of the series — is he a saint or a sinner?
From Los Angeles Times • Oct. 16, 2025
The Argentine author, whose writing habitually draws on the uncanny, here delivers a blend of superstition, dread and a leitmotif of mental instability in a register of acute psychological realism.
From The Wall Street Journal • Oct. 9, 2025
Its leitmotif is push and pull: unsettling, bruising, often brutal, yet ultimately life-affirming.
From BBC • Sep. 4, 2025
In the “Barbie” film, “What Was I Made For?” plays a key role — an instrumental version of the song pops up like a leitmotif, soundtracking introspective, existential moments for its protagonist.
From Seattle Times • Mar. 10, 2024
The goal of a leitmotif is to help the listener identify the main characters and give each a very short musical pattern, so that every time their name is mentioned, someone plays that pattern.
From "Music and the Child" by Natalie Sarrazin
Vocabulary lists containing leitmotif
Opera Vocabulary
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Words Derived from German
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