Tone - Definition

n 1: the quality of a person's voice; "he began in a
conversational tone"; "he spoke in a nervous tone of voice"
[syn: tone, tone of voice]
2: (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: (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" [syn: timbre, timber, quality,
tone]
4: 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" [syn: spirit, tone, feel, feeling,
flavor, flavour, look, smell]
5: a quality of a given color that differs slightly from another
color; "after several trials he mixed the shade of pink that
she wanted" [syn: shade, tint, tincture, tone]
6: a notation representing the pitch and duration of a musical
sound; "the singer held the note too long" [syn: note,
musical note, tone]
7: a steady sound without overtones; "they tested his hearing
with pure tones of different frequencies" [syn: tone, pure
tone]
8: the elastic tension of living muscles, arteries, etc. that
facilitate response to stimuli; "the doctor tested my
tonicity" [syn: tonicity, tonus, tone] [ant:
amyotonia, atonia, atonicity, atony]
9: a musical interval of two semitones [syn: tone, whole
tone, step, whole step]
10: 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"
v 1: utter monotonously and repetitively and rhythmically; "The
students chanted the same slogan over and over again" [syn:
tone, chant, intone]
2: vary the pitch of one's speech [syn: tone, inflect,
modulate]
3: change the color or tone of; "tone a negative"
4: change to a color image; "tone a photographic image"
5: give a healthy elasticity to; "Let's tone our muscles" [syn:
tone, tone up, strengthen]