WordPress: what is a theme in WordPress?

Self-tutoring about WordPress: the tutor reflects about the idea of a theme.

The following is according to my understanding.

I mention back in my post of May 2, 2024, the idea of a default theme in WordPress. Perhaps the question might arise, “But, what is a theme, in WordPress?”

A theme in WordPress determines how your content is displayed. To my knowledge, there are tens of thousands of them, including fourteen thousand free ones. Typically, the name of the theme being used on a WordPress site might display at the bottom of the page.

When one installs WordPress on a website, it comes with a default theme – usually, as I understand, that year’s theme as produced by WordPress, such as Twenty Twenty-Five. After making a few changes in Settings, one could start writing and publishing posts, changing nothing else. As they were published, the posts would become available, displayed in the default way of that theme.

Yet, a lot of WordPress users end up selecting a different theme from the default. Installing a new theme can be done from the dashboard, whence one can view and select from thousands, and can filter the search. Once the new theme is installed, one would activate it to make it the one in use.

After a while, a user might decide they like the theme they are running, but want to change (customize) details about it. If said details are such things as font size or background color, the user could affect them using a child theme. That, however, is for another post.

Source:

wordpress.org: Themes

learn.wordpress.org: Choosing and installing a theme