tone
IPA: tˈoʊn
noun
- (music) A specific pitch.
- (music) (in the diatonic scale) An interval of a major second.
- (music) (in a Gregorian chant) A recitational melody.
- The character of a sound, especially the timbre of an instrument or voice.
- (linguistics) The pitch of a word that distinguishes a difference in meaning, for example in Chinese.
- (dated) A whining style of speaking; a kind of mournful or artificial strain of voice; an affected speaking with a measured rhythm and a regular rise and fall of the voice.
- (literature) The manner in which speech or writing is expressed.
- (obsolete) State of mind; temper; mood.
- The shade or quality of a colour.
- The favourable effect of a picture produced by the combination of light and shade, or of colours.
- The definition and firmness of a muscle or organ; see also: tonus.
- (biology) The state of a living body or of any of its organs or parts in which the functions are healthy and performed with due vigor.
- (biology) Normal tension or responsiveness to stimuli.
- (African-American Vernacular, slang) a gun
- (figuratively)
- The general character, atmosphere, mood, or vibe (of a situation, place, etc.).
- (Chiefly in the form lower/raise the tone of something) The quality of being respectable or admirable.
- A male given name, a short form of Anthony/Antony
- A river in Somerset, England, which flows into the River Parrett.
verb
- (transitive) to give a particular tone to
- (transitive) to change the colour of
- (transitive) to make (something) firmer
- (transitive) to utter with an affected tone.
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Examples of "tone" in Sentences
- Notice the snide tone in her voice.
- I was trying to speak in a neutral tone.
- The tones of his voice were loud and vibrant.
- In the comics, reptile speaks in the same hissing tone.
- Do you think it is right to say in the deprecatory tone
- Are you willing to say the tone of the two articles is the same
- Use a quiet and polite tone of voice when talking with customers.
- You say you can't speak for him, yet your tone suggests otherwise.
- The meaning is inferred from the tone of voice and attitude of the speaker.
- His voice was dark, rich and wide ranging with a characteristic, virile tone.
- It's all tone with Chopin -- _tone_, my child, even in the most bravura passages.
- _Leading tone_ -- the tone which demands resolution to the tonic (one-half step above it).
- This shows that _for every tone an air column of a certain size most powerfully reinforces that tone_.
- _tan_ we have in Greek _tonos_, our tone, _tone_ being produced by the stretching and vibrating of cords.
- Because the tone can be heard on pairs other than the one you put it on, when tone or tone+ are inappropriate.
- Therefore, instead of producing tone by local effort, by conscious muscular action of any sort, correctly _think the tone_, correctly shape and color it _mentally_.
- Just so, we talk of _tone_ in coloring, and of a _heavy_ or _light_ sound; though, of course, in their proper significance, tone belongs only to sound, and heaviness to gravitating bodies.
- Many teachers are replacing the word _chromatic_ in this sense with the term _intermediate tone_, this term being applicable whether the foreign tone is actually used for ornamental purposes as a _chromatic_, or to effect a modulation.
- There is no particular basis for this theory, for although all scales must of course begin with the key-tone or tonic, this tonic may be referred to by any syllable which will serve as a basis for an association process enabling one to feel the force of the tone as a closing point -- a _home tone_.
- -- The most natural and characteristic indication of a cadence is the _longer tone_, seen in the examples to which reference has just been made; for a tone of greater length than its fellows is, in itself, the most conclusive evidence of a point of repose, as compared with the shorter tones in the course of the sentence, whose more prompt succession indicates the action of the phrase.
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