Motif may refer to:

General concepts

Motif (chess composition) In chess composition, a motif is basic element of a move in the consideration why the piece moves and how it supports the fulfillment of a stipulation. Any move may and often does contain multiple motifs. Some composition schools put specific emp ...

, an element of a move in the consideration of its purpose *

Motif (folkloristics) The ''Motif-Index of Folk-Literature'' is a six volume catalogue of motifs, granular elements of folklore, composed by American folklorist Stith Thompson (1932–1936, revised and expanded 1955–1958). Often referred to as Thompson's motif-index ...

, a recurring element that creates recognizable patterns in folklore and folk-art traditions *

Motif (music) In music, a motif IPA: ( /moʊˈtiːf/) (also motive) is a short musical phrase, a salient recurring figure, musical fragment or succession of notes that has some special importance in or is characteristic of a composition: "The motive ...

, a salient recurring fragment or succession of notes * Motif (narrative), any recurring element in a story that has symbolic significance or the reason behind actions * Motif (textile arts), a recurring element or fragment that, when joined together, creates a larger work *

Motif (visual arts) In art and iconography, a motif () is an element of an image. The term can be used both of figurative and narrative art, and ornament and geometrical art. A motif may be repeated in a pattern or design, often many times, or may just occur onc ...

, a repeated theme or pattern

Biochemistry

Sequence motif In biology, a sequence motif is a nucleotide or amino-acid sequence pattern that is widespread and usually assumed to be related to biological function of the macromolecule. For example, an ''N''-glycosylation site motif can be defined as ''As ...

, a sequence pattern of nucleotides in a DNA sequence or amino acids in a protein *

Short linear motif In molecular biology short linear motifs (SLiMs), linear motifs or minimotifs are short stretches of protein sequence that mediate protein–protein interaction. The first definition was given by Tim Hunt: "The sequences of many proteins contain s ...

, a stretch of protein sequence that mediates protein–protein interaction *

Structural motif In a polymer, chain-like biological molecule, such as a protein or nucleic acid, a structural motif is a common Biomolecular structure#Tertiary structure, three-dimensional structure that appears in a variety of different, evolutionarily unrel ...

, a pattern in a protein structure formed by the spatial arrangement of amino acids

Other uses

* ''Motif'' (2019 film), 2019 Malaysian Malay-language crime drama film * ''Motif'' (album), a 2008 album by guitarist Steve Howe * Motif (band), a Swedish experimental jazz band * Motif (software), a GUI specification and widget toolkit for Unix * Network motif, patterns (sub-graphs) that recur more often than expected * Yamaha Motif, a series of music workstations

General concepts

Biochemistry

Other uses

See also