tone

English Dictionary -> Letter T -> tone

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tone Definition

(n) the quality of a person''s voice; "he began in a conversational tone"; "he spoke in a nervous tone of voice"
(n) (linguistics) a pitch or change in pitch of the voice that serves to distinguish words in tonal languages; "the Beijing dialect uses four tones"
(n) (music) the distinctive property of a complex sound (a voice or noise or musical sound); "the timbre of her soprano was rich and lovely"; "the muffled tones of the broken bell summoned them to meet"
(n) the general atmosphere of a place or situation and the effect that it has on people; "the feel of the city excited him"; "a clergyman improved the tone of the meeting"; "it had the smell of treason"
(n) a quality of a given color that differs slightly from a primary color; "after several trials he mixed the shade of pink that she wanted"
(n) a notation representing the pitch and duration of a musical sound; "the singer held the note too long"
(n) a steady sound without overtones; "they tested his hearing with pure tones of different frequencies"
(n) the elastic tension of living muscles, arteries, etc. that facilitate response to stimuli; "the doctor tested my tonicity"
(n) a musical interval of two semitones
(n) the quality of something (an act or a piece of writing) that reveals the attitudes and presuppositions of the author; "the general tone of articles appearing in the newspapers is that the government should withdraw"; "from the tone of her behavior I gathe
(v) utter monotonously and repetitively and rhythmically; "The students chanted the same slogan over and over again"
(v) of one''s speech, varying the pitch
(v) change the color or tone of; "tone a negative"
(v) change to a color image; "tone a photographic image"
(v) give a healthy elasticity to; "Let''s tone our muscles"

tone Synonyms