"motifs" in the noun sense
1. motif, motive
a design or figure that consists of recurring shapes or colors, as in architecture or decoration
2. motif, motive
a theme that is repeated or elaborated in a piece of music
3. theme, motif
a unifying idea that is a recurrent element in literary or artistic work
"it was the usual `boy gets girl' theme"
Source: WordNet® (An amazing lexical database of English)
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