TONE • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Tone

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Tone

noun

1.

The quality of a person's voice. Synonym: tone of voice. "He spoke in a nervous tone of voice"

2.

(linguistics) a pitch or change in pitch of the voice that serves to distinguish words in tonal languages.

3.

(music) the distinctive property of a complex sound (a voice or noise or musical sound). Synonyms: quality, timber, timbre. "The muffled tones of the broken bell summoned them to meet"

4.

The general atmosphere of a place or situation and the effect that it has on people. Synonyms: feel, feeling, flavor, flavour, look, smell, spirit. "A clergyman improved the tone of the meeting" , "It had the smell of treason"

5.

A quality of a given color that differs slightly from another color. Synonyms: shade, tincture, tint.

6.

A notation representing the pitch and duration of a musical sound. Synonyms: musical note, note.

7.

A steady sound without overtones. Synonym: pure tone.

8.

The elastic tension of living muscles, arteries, etc. that facilitate response to stimuli. Synonyms: tonicity, tonus. Antonym: atonicity.

9.

A musical interval of two semitones. Synonyms: step, whole step, whole tone.

10.

The quality of something (an act or a piece of writing) that reveals the attitudes and presuppositions of the author. "From the tone of her behavior I gathered that I had outstayed my welcome"

verb

(past & past part. toned; pres. part. toning)

1.

Utter monotonously and repetitively and rhythmically. Synonyms: chant, intone.

2.

Vary the pitch of one's speech. Synonyms: inflect, modulate.

3.

Change the color or tone of.

4.

Change to a color image.

5.

Give a healthy elasticity to. Synonyms: strengthen, tone up.

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Etymology of 'Tone'

Related searches:

twelve-tone music

twelve-tone system

WordNet 3.0 © 2010 Princeton University

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"Tone" Quotes from Famous Books

... of envious rivalry and depreciating criticism in which many English travellers have written, is greatly to be deprecated, no less than the tone of servile adulation which some writers have adopted; but our American neighbours must recollect that they provoked both the virulent spirit and the hostile caricature by the way in which some of ...

— The Englishwoman in America • Isabella Lucy Bird

... desert their roosts in great flocks until at last but few lingered on the barren limbs. Charley was about to call his companions together and propose a return to camp when a sudden cry sent the blood tingling through his veins. It was Walter's voice, and its tone was that of fear and horror unutterable. Pausing a second to locate the direction of the sound, Charley bounded away for it at the top of his speed. As he passed a thick clump of trees the captain broke out from among them and ...

— The Boy Chums in the Forest - or Hunting for Plume Birds in the Florida Everglades • Wilmer M. Ely

... loathed particularly was his lisp. His tongue must have been a little too long or something of that sort, for he continually lisped, and seemed to be very proud of it, imagining that it greatly added to his dignity. He spoke in a slow, measured tone, with his hands behind his back and his eyes fixed on the ground. He maddened me particularly when he read aloud the psalms to himself behind his partition. Many a battle I waged over that reading! But he was awfully fond of ...

— Notes from the Underground • Feodor Dostoevsky

... Dick's assurance and confident tone, and, putting the thought aside for a time, gave herself up to the pleasure of his return. They had found everything at Tripataly as they had left it, for the Mysore horsemen had not penetrated so far north, before Tippoo turned his course east to Pondicherry. ...

— The Tiger of Mysore - A Story of the War with Tippoo Saib • G. A. Henty

... the naval companion, "lieutenant of the United States frigate Fox, and I recommend you, my boy, to address him in a civil tone. For me, I never ...

— Tales of the Chesapeake • George Alfred Townsend

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