tone

Meanings

Noun

• A specific pitch.
• (in the diatonic scale) An interval of a major second.
• (in a Gregorian chant) A recitational melody.
• The character of a sound, especially the timbre of an instrument or voice.
• General character, mood, or trend.
• The pitch of a word that distinguishes a difference in meaning, for example in Chinese.
• 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.
• The manner in which speech or writing is expressed.
• 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.
• 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.
• Normal tension or responsiveness to stimuli.
• a gun

Verb

• to give a particular tone to
• to change the colour of
• to make (something) firmer
• to harmonize, especially in colour
• to utter with an affected tone.

Pronoun

• the one (of two)

Related

Similar words

• whole tone
• color/colour, dye, paint, tint
• firm, firm up, tone up
• harmonise/harmonize

Origin

• From Middle English ton, tone, from Latin tonus ("sound, tone") (possibly through Old French ton), from Ancient Greek τόνος ("strain, tension, pitch"), from τείνω. tune, ton, and tonus.
• From Middle English tone, ton, toon, from the incorrect division of thet one. Compare Scots tane in the tane; see also tother.