Etymology : Middle English, from Latin tonus tension, tone, from Greek tonos, literally, act of stretching; akin to Greek teinein to stretch; more at THIN
Pronunciation : 'tOn
Function : noun
Date : 14th century
1. sound, ring; atmosphere. give a sound or ring; give a color or tint. tone\tone\, n.
2. (physiol.) quality, with respect to attendant feeling; the more or less variable complex of emotion accompanying and characterizing a sensation or a conceptual state; as, feeling tone; color tone.
3. color quality proper; -- called also hue. also, a gradation of color, either a hue, or a tint or shade. she was dressed in a soft cloth of a gray tone. g. parker.
4. (plant physiol.) the condition of normal balance of a healthy plant in its relations to light, heat, and moisture.tone \tone\ (tōn), n. [f. ton, l. tonus a sound, tone, fr. gr. to`nos a stretching, straining, raising of the voice, pitch, accent, measure or meter, in pl., modes or keys differing in pitch; akin to tei`nein to stretch or strain. see:
thin, and cf. monotonous, thunder, ton fashion, tune.].
5. 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. [harmony divine] smooths her charming tones. tones that with seraph hymns might blend.
6. (rhet.) accent, or inflection or modulation of the voice, as adapted to express emotion or passion. eager his tone, and ardent were his eyes.
7. 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.
8. (mus.) (a) a sound considered as to pitch; as, the seven tones of the octave; she has good high tones. (b) 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. (c) the peculiar quality of sound in any voice or instrument; as, a rich tone, a reedy tone. (d) a mode or tune or plain chant; as, the gregorian tones.note: the use of the word tone, both for a sound and for the interval between two sounds or tones, is confusing, but is common -- almost universal.note: nearly every musical sound is composite, consisting of several simultaneous tones having different rates of vibration according to fixed laws, which depend upon the nature of the vibrating body and the mode of excitation. the components (of a composite sound) are called partial tones; that one having the lowest rate of vibration is the fundamental tone, and the other partial tones are called harmonics, or overtones. the vibration ratios of the partial tones composing any sound are expressed by all, or by a part, of the numbers in the series 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, etc.; and the quality of any sound (the tone color) is due in part to the presence or absence of overtones as represented in this series, and in part to the greater or less intensity of those present as compared with the fundamental tone and with one another. resultant tones, combination tones, summation tones, difference tones, tartini's tones (terms only in part synonymous) are produced by the simultaneous sounding of two or more primary (simple or composite) tones.
9. (med.) 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.note: in this sense, the word is metaphorically applied to character or faculties, intellectual and moral; as, his mind has lost its tone.
10. (physiol.) tonicity; as, arterial tone.
11. state of mind; temper; mood. 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. their tone was dissatisfied, almost menacing. c. bryant.
12. tenor; character; spirit; drift; as, the tone of his remarks was commendatory.
13. general or prevailing character or style, as of morals, manners, or sentiment, i.
14. 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.
15. Accent, or inflection or modulation of the voice, as adapted to express emotion or passion.
16. 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.
17. A sound considered as to pitch; as, the seven tones of the octave; she has good high tones.
18. 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.
19. The peculiar quality of sound in any voice or instrument; as, a rich tone, a reedy tone.
20. A mode or tune or plain chant; as, the Gregorian tones.
21. 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.
22. Tonicity; as, arterial tone.
23. State of mind; temper; mood.
24. To utter with an affected tone.
25. To give tone, or a particular tone, to; to tune.
26. See Tune, v. t.
27. To bring, as a print, to a certain required shade of color, as by chemical treatment.
28. Quality, with respect to attendant feeling; the more or less variable complex of emotion accompanying and characterizing a sensation or a conceptual state; as, feeling tone; color tone.
29. Color quality proper; called also hue.
30. Also, a gradation of color, either a hue, or a tint or shade.
31. The condition of normal balance of a healthy plant in its relations to light, heat, and moisture. a pitch or change in pitch of the voice that serves to distinguish words in tonal languages; "the Beijing dialect uses four tones" the quality of something 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" a steady sound without overtones; "they tested his hearing with pure tones of different frequencies" a musical interval of two semitones the quality of a person's voice; "he began in a conversational tone"; "he spoke in a nervous tone of voice" give a healthy elasticity to; "Let's tone our muscles" change to a color image; "tone a photographic image" change the color or tone of; "tone a negative" of one's speech, varying the pitch utter monotonously and repetitively and rhythmically; "The students chanted the same slogan over and over again".
32. 1. The tone of a sound is its particular quality. Cross could hear him speaking in low tones to Sarah. the clear tone of the bell.
33. Someone's tone is a quality in their voice which shows what they are feeling or thinking. I still didn't like his tone of voice Her tone implied that her patience was limited.
34. The tone of a speech or piece of writing is its style and the opinions or ideas expressed in it. The spokesman said the tone of the letter was very friendly His comments to reporters were conciliatory in tone.
35. The tone of a place or an event is its general atmosphere. The service desk at the entrance, with its friendly, helpful and efficient staff, sets the tone for the rest of the store.
36. The tone of someone's body, especially their muscles, is its degree of firmness and strength. stretch exercises that aim to improve muscle tone.
37. Something that tones your body makes it firm and strong. This movement lengthens your spine and tones the spinal nerves Try these toning exercises before you start the day. finely toned muscular bodies. Tone up means the same as tone. Exercise tones up your body Although it's not strenuous exercise, you feel toned-up, supple and relaxed.
38. A tone is one of the lighter, darker, or brighter shades of the same colour. Each brick also varies slightly in tone, texture and size.
39. A tone is one of the sounds that you hear when you are using a telephone, for example the sound that tells you that a number is engaged or busy, or no longer exists. see also:
dialling tone, ring tone.
40. If you say that something lowers the tone of a place or event, you mean that it is not appropriate and makes the place or event seem less respectable. Councillors say plastic-framed windows lower the tone of the neighbourhood. Irish nationalist who helped secure Parliament's passage of the Catholic Relief Act of 1793 and planned a French invasion of Ireland (1796). tone up to improve the strength and firmness of your muscles, skin etc. In linguistics, a variation in the pitch of the voice while speaking. The term is usually applied to languages (called tone languages) in which pitch differentiates words with an identical sequences of consonants and vowels. For example, man in Mandarin Chinese may mean either "deceive" or "slow," depending on its pitch. In tone languages, what matters is not absolute pitch but the pitch of one word relative to another or how pitch changes within a word. tone poem Tone River Tone Theobald Wolfe.
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