Noun
- 1. tone, tone of voice, manner of speaking, speech, delivery
- usage: the quality of a person's voice; "he began in a conversational tone"; "he spoke in a nervous tone of voice"
- 2. tone, pitch
- usage: (linguistics) a pitch or change in pitch of the voice that serves to distinguish words in tonal languages; "the Beijing dialect uses four tones"
- 3. timbre, timber, quality, tone, sound property
- usage: (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"
- 4. spirit, tone, feel, feeling, flavor, flavour, look, smell, atmosphere, ambiance, ambience
- usage: 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"
- 5. shade, tint, tincture, tone, color, colour, coloring, colouring
- usage: a quality of a given color that differs slightly from another color; "after several trials he mixed the shade of pink that she wanted"
- 6. note, musical note, tone, musical notation
- usage: a notation representing the pitch and duration of a musical sound; "the singer held the note too long"
- 7. tone, pure tone, sound, auditory sensation
- usage: a steady sound without overtones; "they tested his hearing with pure tones of different frequencies"
- 8. tonicity, tonus, tone, tension, tensity, tenseness, tautness
- usage: the elastic tension of living muscles, arteries, etc. that facilitate response to stimuli; "the doctor tested my tonicity"
- 9. tone, whole tone, step, whole step, interval, musical interval
- usage: a musical interval of two semitones
- 10. tone, quality
- usage: 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 gathered that I had outstayed my welcome"
Verb
- 1. tone, chant, intone, talk, speak, utter, mouth, verbalize, verbalise
- usage: utter monotonously and repetitively and rhythmically; "The students chanted the same slogan over and over again"
- 2. tone, inflect, modulate, talk, speak, utter, mouth, verbalize, verbalise
- usage: vary the pitch of one's speech
- 3. tone, discolor, discolour, colour, color
- usage: change the color or tone of; "tone a negative"
- 4. tone, color, colorize, colorise, colourise, colourize, colour, color in, colour in
- usage: change to a color image; "tone a photographic image"
- 5. tone, tone up, strengthen, exercise, work out
- usage: give a healthy elasticity to; "Let's tone our muscles"
WordNet 3.0 Copyright © 2006 by Princeton University.
All rights reserved.Definition and meaning of tone (Dictionary)