Meaning of 'tone' (Webster Dictionary)
- Sound, or the character of a sound, or a sound considered as
of this or that character; as, a low, high, loud, grave, acute, sweet,
or harsh tone.
- Accent, or inflection or modulation of the voice, as adapted
to express emotion or passion.
- A whining style of speaking; a kind of mournful or artificial
strain of voice; an affected speaking with a measured rhythm ahd a
regular rise and fall of the voice; as, children often read with a
tone.
- A sound considered as to pitch; as, the seven tones of the
octave; she has good high tones.
- The larger kind of interval between contiguous sounds in the
diatonic scale, the smaller being called a semitone as, a whole tone
too flat; raise it a tone.
- The peculiar quality of sound in any voice or instrument; as,
a rich tone, a reedy tone.
- A mode or tune or plain chant; as, the Gregorian tones.
- That state of a body, or of any of its organs or parts, in
which the animal functions are healthy and performed with due vigor.
- Tonicity; as, arterial tone.
- State of mind; temper; mood.
- Tenor; character; spirit; drift; as, the tone of his remarks
was commendatory.
- General or prevailing character or style, as of morals,
manners, or sentiment, in reference to a scale of high and low; as, a
low tone of morals; a tone of elevated sentiment; a courtly tone of
manners.
- The general effect of a picture produced by the combination
of light and shade, together with color in the case of a painting; --
commonly used in a favorable sense; as, this picture has tone.
- To utter with an affected tone.
- To give tone, or a particular tone, to; to tune. See Tune,
v. t.
- To bring, as a print, to a certain required shade of
color, as by chemical treatment.
Meaning of 'tone' (Princeton's WordNet)
Meaning (1):
- the general atmosphere of a place or situation and the effect that it has on people
Example in sentence:- a clergyman improved the tone of the meeting;
- it had the smell of treason;
- the feel of the city excited him
Meaning (2):
- a quality of a given color that differs slightly from another color
Example in sentence:- after several trials he mixed the shade of pink that she wanted
Meaning (3):
- the quality of something (an act or a piece of writing) that reveals the attitudes and presuppositions of the author
Example in sentence:- from the tone of her behavior I gathered that I had outstayed my welcome;
- the general tone of articles appearing in the newspapers is that the government should withdraw
Meaning (4):
- the quality of a person's voice
Example in sentence:- he began in a conversational tone;
- he spoke in a nervous tone of voice
Meaning (5):
- (linguistics) a pitch or change in pitch of the voice that serves to distinguish words in tonal languages
Example in sentence:- the Beijing dialect uses four tones
Meaning (6):
- the elastic tension of living muscles, arteries, etc. that facilitate response to stimuli
Example in sentence:- the doctor tested my tonicity
Meaning (7):
- (music) the distinctive property of a complex sound (a voice or noise or musical sound)
Example in sentence:- the muffled tones of the broken bell summoned them to meet;
- the timbre of her soprano was rich and lovely
Meaning (8):
- a notation representing the pitch and duration of a musical sound
Example in sentence:- the singer held the note too long
Meaning (9):
- a steady sound without overtones
Example in sentence:- they tested his hearing with pure tones of different frequencies
Meaning (10):
- give a healthy elasticity to
Meaning (11):
- utter monotonously and repetitively and rhythmically
Example in sentence:- The students chanted the same slogan over and over again
Meaning (12):
- change the color or tone of
Meaning (13):
- change to a color image
Example in sentence:- tone a photographic image
Definition
[ n.]