tone

English Online Dictionary. What means tone‎? What does tone mean?

English

Etymology 1

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.

Pronunciation

• (UK) enPR: tōn, IPA^(key): /təʊn/
• (US) enPR: tōn, IPA^(key): /toʊn/
• Rhymes: -əʊn

Noun

tone (plural tones)

1. (music) A specific pitch.
2. (music) (in the diatonic scale) An interval of a major second.
3. (music) (in a Gregorian chant) A recitational melody.
4. The character of a sound, especially the timbre of an instrument or voice.
5. (linguistics) The pitch of a word that distinguishes a difference in meaning, for example in Chinese.
6. (dated) 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.

   Children often read with a tone.

7. (literature) The manner in which speech or writing is expressed.
8. (obsolete) State of mind; temper; mood.
   • 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.

9. The shade or quality of a colour.
10. The favourable effect of a picture produced by the combination of light and shade, or of colours.

    This picture has tone.

11. The definition and firmness of a muscle or organ; see also: tonus.
12. (biology) 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.
14. (biology) Normal tension or responsiveness to stimuli.
15. (African-American Vernacular, slang) a gun
16. (figuratively)
    1. The general character, atmosphere, mood, or vibe (of a situation, place, etc.).
    2. (Chiefly in the form lower/raise the tone of something) The quality of being respectable or admirable.

Synonyms

• (an interval of a major second): whole tone

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

Verb

tone (third-person singular simple present tones, present participle toning, simple past and past participle toned)

1. (transitive) to give a particular tone to
2. (transitive) to change the colour of
3. (transitive) to make (something) firmer
4. (transitive) to utter with an affected tone.

Synonyms

• (give a particular tone to):
• (change the colour of): color/colour, dye, paint, tint
• (make firmer): firm, firm up, tone up
• (utter with an affected tone):

Derived terms

• betone
• toned
• tone down
• tone in
• toner
• tone up
• tony, toney (affected tone)

Translations

Etymology 2

From Middle English tone, ton, toon, from the incorrect division of thet one (“the/that one”). Compare Scots tane in the tane; see also tother.

Pronoun

tone

1. (now dialectal) the one (of two)

Further reading

• “tone”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “tone”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.

References

Anagrams

• ETNO, Eton, Note, Teno, ento-, note, teno-

Afrikaans

Noun

tone

1. plural of toon

Danish

Etymology

From Old Norse tóni, from Latin tonus (“sound, tone”), from Ancient Greek τόνος (tónos, “strain, tension, pitch”), from τείνω (teínō, “I stretch”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /toːnə/, [ˈtˢoːnə]

Noun

tone c (singular definite tonen, plural indefinite toner)

1. tone
2. note

Declension

Verb

tone (imperative ton, infinitive at tone, present tense toner, past tense tonede, perfect tense har tonet)

1. to sound
2. to tone
3. to tint

References

• “tone” in Den Danske Ordbog

Dutch

Pronunciation

Verb

tone

1. (dated or formal) singular present subjunctive of tonen

Anagrams

• toen

Latin

Noun

tone

1. vocative singular of tonus

Middle English

Pronoun

tone

1. the one (of two)

Norwegian Bokmål

Etymology

From Old Norse tóni, from Latin tonus (“sound, tone”), from Ancient Greek τόνος (tónos, “strain, tension, pitch”), from τείνω (teínō, “I stretch”).

Noun

tone m (definite singular tonen, indefinite plural toner, definite plural tonene)

1. a tone (sound, colour etc.)

Derived terms

• halvtone

References

• “tone” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

Anagrams

• note, toen, -onet

Norwegian Nynorsk

Etymology

From Old Norse tóni, from Latin tonus (“sound, tone”), from Ancient Greek τόνος (tónos, “strain, tension, pitch”), from τείνω (teínō, “I stretch”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /²tuːnə/

Noun

tone m (definite singular tonen, indefinite plural tonar, definite plural tonane)

1. a tone (sound, colour etc.)

Derived terms

• halvtone
• tonekunst

References

• “tone” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

Swahili

Pronunciation

Noun

tone (ma class, plural matone)

1. drop

Tokelauan

Etymology

Borrowed from English ton.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ˈto.ne]
• Hyphenation: to‧ne

Noun

tone

1. ton

Alternative forms

• tane

References

• R. Simona, editor (1986), Tokelau Dictionary‎^[7], Auckland: Office of Tokelau Affairs, page 397