Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Not accented: an atonic syllable.
- adj. Pathology Relating to, caused by, or exhibiting lack of muscle tone.
- n. A word, syllable, or sound that is unaccented.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- In pathology, characterized by atony, or want of tone or power: as, an atonic disease.
- In philology: Unaccented. Produced by the breath alone; surd.
- n. In medicine, a drug capable of allaying organic excitement or irritation.
- n. In philology: A word or syllable that has no accent.
- n. An elementary sound produced by the breath; a surd consonant; a breathing.
Wiktionary
- adj. Referring to a syllable or sound that is spoken without accent or stress.
- adj. pathology Lacking muscle tone.
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. (Med.) Characterized by atony, or lack of vital energy.
- adj. (Gram.) Unaccented.
- adj. Destitute of tone vocality; surd.
- n. (Gram.) A word that has no accent.
- n. An element of speech entirely destitute of vocality, or produced by the breath alone; a nonvocal or surd consonant; a breathing.
- n. (Med.) A remedy capable of allaying organic excitement or irritation.
WordNet 3.0
- adj. characterized by a lack of tonus
- adj. used of syllables
Etymologies
- From Greek atonos; see atony. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“This state has been absurdly enough called the atonic gout, as if there were a gout accompanied with vigour and sthenic diathesis: but the absence of inflammation in the extremities may depend on two causes.”
Popular Lectures on Zoonomia Or The Laws of Animal Life, in Health and Disease
“The researchers did find that women who used triptans in their second or third trimester were more likely to develop a condition called atonic uterus, in which the uterus fails to contract back to its normal size after delivery.”
“A sequence of atonic closed vowel + open vowel + atonic closed vowel can be pronounced, in certain cases, as one syllable, a triphthong, and in others as two distinct syllables, with a hiatus followed by a diphthong, or vice versa.”
“For a triphthong to exist, two closed atonic vowels (“i” or “u”) and, between them, an open vowel (“a”, “e”, or “o”): anunciáis, guau, miau, confiéis.”
“However, for purposes of graphic accenting, any sequence made up of an open vowel between two closed atonic vowels will always be considered as a triphthong, regardless of its actual articulation in one or two syllables.”
“Have any of you been informed that eventually a person cannot live on the tube feeding, that the bowel will begin to not absorb the nutrients, and that it will become atonic or atrophied?”
“The elderly can have atonic constipation secondary to nerve dysfunction that reduces or halts peristalsis.”
“Oh K, I did get a little bit TOO inebriated at one point, but it was nice for me to be KAT-atonic for a bit, as a reminder for how wonderful it is to have my wits about me.”
“The racket issuing from the squawk box just above Hansen's bunk was appalling, a high-pitched, shrieking, atonic whistle, two-toned and altering pitch every half-second, it drilled stiletto-like against my cringing eardrums.”
“The atonic screeching of the whistle stopped abruptly and the silence fell like a blow.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘atonic’.
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Adjectival Arcana
A roster of adjectives that infrequently surface in typical conversation and writing. Many are dredged from scientific or other technical jargon or sieved from examples of disused archaic forms.
unitegmic, acaulescent, reticuloendothelial, ingressive, uniate, acanthopterygian, ossific, epiphysial, perivisceral, acœlomatous, cestoid, acælomate and 7756 more...
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