tone
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: enpr: tōn
ipa: /təʊn/
enpr: tōn
ipa: /toʊn/
rhymes: -əʊn
Forms: form: tones
Etymology: From Middle English ton, tone, from Latin tonus (“sound, tone”) (possibly through Old French ton), from Ancient Greek τόνος (tónos, “strain, tension, pitch”), from τείνω (teínō, “I stretch”). Doublet of tune, ton, tonos, and tonus.
Senses: topics: entertainment
lifestyle
music
glosses: A specific pitch.
topics: entertainment
lifestyle
music
glosses: (in the diatonic scale) An interval of a major second.
topics: entertainment
lifestyle
music
glosses: (in a Gregorian chant) A recitational melody.
glosses: The character of a sound, especially the timbre of an instrument or voice.
topics: human-sciences
language
linguistics
sciences
glosses: The pitch of a word's sound that distinguishes a difference in meaning, as for example in Chinese.
examples: text: Children often read with a tone.
topics: human-sciences
language
linguistics
sciences
glosses: 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.
examples: text: Their tone was dissatisfied, almost menacing.
ref: 1850, William Cullen Bryant, Letters of a Traveller:
topics: human-sciences
language
linguistics
literature
media
publishing
sciences
glosses: The manner in which speech or writing is expressed, especially the aspects of diction (word choice), connotation, emotiveness, and register.
examples: c. 1714 (undated), Henry St John, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke, letter to Alexander Pope
The strange situation I am in and the melancholy state of public affairs, […] drag the mind down […] from a philosophical tone or temper, to the drudgery of private and public business.
glosses: State of mind; temper; mood.
examples: text: We make crude visual distinctions and effectively meaningless categorizations based on average skin tones, such as black or white.
ref: 2017, Adam Rutherford, A Brief History of Everyone Who Ever Lived, The Experiment, →ISBN, page 81:
glosses: The shade or quality of a colour.
examples: text: This picture has tone.
qualifier: painting
glosses: The favourable effect of a picture produced by the combination of light and shade, or of colours.
glosses: The definition and firmness of a muscle or organ; see also: tonus.
topics: biology
natural-sciences
glosses: 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.
topics: biology
natural-sciences
glosses: Normal tension or responsiveness to stimuli.
examples: text: But nigga don't step wrong, cuz 8ball keep a tone
ref: 1993, “9 Little Millimeta Boys”, in 8Ball (lyrics), Comin' Out Hard:
text: M.A.C.T.D.O.G got the tone so hoe you know it's on
ref: 1994, “Murda In Da 1st Degree”, in Princess Loko (lyrics), Ashes 2 Ashes, Dust 2 Dust:
text: Got the tone to ya head yo life flashing right front your eyes
ref: 2002, “Mouth Write a Check”, in Project Pat (lyrics), Layin' da Smack Down:
qualifier: African-American Vernacular
glosses: a gun
examples: text: Her rousing speech gave an upbeat tone to the rest of the evening.
text: Mr O'Brien confirmed the warning from the council was based on the fact that the structure the mural was painted on was not a temporary one and on the claim that it changes the tone of the street and impacts on the area.
ref: 2016 July 25, Megan McDermott, “'Repeal the 8th' mural in Project Arts Centre in Temple Bar removed”, in Irish Times:
text: Manuel expects that once 2 St. Clair West is done it will change the tone of the neighbourhood.
ref: 2016 December 30, Francine Kopun, “Sleepy Yonge and St. Clair gets a makeover”, in Toronto Star:
text: "What struck me most was not necessarily what was said but ... the tone of the room, ... the fear and anxiety that people have for their family members who are currently in the grip of addiction," Green said.
ref: 2022 December 2, “Many solutions, some small, needed to tackle addictions in the N.W.T.”, in CBC:
glosses: The general character, atmosphere, mood, or vibe (of a situation, place, etc.).
examples: text: "I am going to raise the tone of the business. That's wot I want you for. To raise the tone of the business."
ref: 1904, May Sinclair, The Divine Fire, H. Holt, page 340:
text: The teaching we have had of late has lowered the tone of Christianity, as the remarks by the two gentlemen who preceded me will attest; and, instead of producing stalwart manhood, it has generated a brood of mountebanks. Give us a pure Gospel or a vacant pulpit!
ref: 1911, Charles Augustus Jenkens, The Bride's Return, Or, How Grand Avenue Church Came to Christ, C.H. Robinson, page 67:
text: But Mr Fagan said the tone of the street was brought down by the presence of people he termed "the Gatwickians" — residents of a rooming house called the Gatwick Private Hotel.
ref: 2015 July 9, Simon Leo Brown, “St Kilda's Fitzroy Street left to rot says hotel owner”, in ABC News:
text: But for anyone hoping that what proved to be a brief two-way female Tory leadership race might have raised the tone of British politics—currently at an all-time low after the vicious backroom machinations of Brexit referendum—the news wasn't promising.
ref: 2016 July 11, Leah McLaren, “After Brexit, a political revolution in the U.K.—for women”, in Maclean's:
text: That story is replicated wherever there is a brightly decorated house and a neighbour who cares about the tone of the street.
ref: 2017 December 11, Michael Hann, “C7 bulbs or C9s? How Christmas lights became a nerdy obsession”, in The Guardian:
qualifier: Chiefly in the form lower/raise the tone of something
glosses: The quality of being respectable or admirable.
Synonyms: sense: an interval of a major second
word: whole tone
Derived terms: allotone
betone
checked tone
combination tone
comfort tone
contour tone
demitone
departing tone
dialling tone
dial tone
ditone
downtone
dual tone multi-frequency
duotone
eigentone
engaged tone
entering tone
escape tone
falling tone
flexatone
floating tone
fuzztone
fuzz tone
gammatone
goldtone
half tone
half-tone
halftone
hemitonic
intertone
jewel tone
leading tone
level tone
meantone
microtone
middletone
midtone
mistone
mosstone
multitone
muscle tone
neighbor tone
neutral tone
non-harmonic tone
oblique tone
overtone
paratone
passing tone
pentatone
polytone
quadtone
quarter-tone
quarter tone
realtone
reorder tone
retone
ring tone
rising tone
room tone
screentone
semitone
serotonin
sesquitone
set the tone
Shepard tone
sidetone
silvertone
skintone
subtone
Tartini tone
tendency tone
tonable
tone arm
tonearm
tonebar
tone bar
tone-bearing unit
tone cluster
tone color
tone-deafly
tone dialing
tone dialling
tone hole
tone indicator
toneless
tonelike
tone mapping
tone mark
tone meeting
tone number
tone of voice
tonepad
tone painting
tone poem
tone police
tone policing
tone sandhi
tone scale
tone tag
tone terracing
tonewheel
tonewood
tonification
tonify
tonology
tonous
touchtone
touch-tone
touch-tone dialing
touch-tone dialling
tritone
tri-tone
truetone
twelve-tone
twelve-tone technique
two-tone
undertone
video dial tone
whole-tone scale
wolf tone
Related terms: atonal
diatonic
intonation
intone
monotone
ringtone
tonal
tonality
tone-deaf
tone-deafness
toneme
tonic
tonicity
tune