Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- v. To intone.
- v. To utter with a particular tone of voice: pleas that were intonated with desperation.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- To thunder; make a rumbling noise.
- To intone.
- To sound the tones of the musical scale; practise solmization.
- To pronounce with a tone; intone; utter with a sonant vibration of the vocal cords.
Wiktionary
GNU Webster's 1913
- v. obsolete To thunder.
- v. (Mus.) To sound the tones of the musical scale; to practice the sol-fa.
- v. To modulate the voice in a musical, sonorous, and measured manner, as in reading the liturgy; to intone.
- v. To utter in a musical or sonorous manner; to chant.
WordNet 3.0
- v. recite with musical intonation; recite as a chant or a psalm
- v. speak carefully, as with rising and falling pitch or in a particular tone
Etymologies
- This definition is lacking an etymology or has an incomplete etymology. You can help Wiktionary by giving it a proper etymology. (Wiktionary)
- Medieval Latin intonāre, intonāt-; see intone. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Since there is no relationship to English except for modern words, some effort is required to pronounce and intonate correctly.”
“Of a truth, she had sworn never to actually speak again, but now it occurred to her that perhaps she might at least intonate.”
“Madame Wang was sitting in Mrs. Hsüeh's apartments, whither she had just crossed, when she perceived Chia Huan come back from school, and she bade him transcribe incantations out of the Chin Kang Canon and intonate them.”
Hung Lou Meng, Book II Or, the Dream of the Red Chamber, a Chinese Novel in Two Books
“Ole Billie Bawlie" found as Number 4 was a little song which was used to deride men who had little ability musically to intonate "calls" and”
“The motor ideas with which the speech movement has to start are cut off and the subject yields passively to the fate that he cannot intonate his voice.”
“When the voice-producer has learned to intonate surely, when the voice is "placed," and the secrets of the registers are known to him, he will do well to experiment a little, cautiously, with his own resonance-chambers, so as to widen his practical knowledge of the principles underlying the modification of tones.”
“In order to secure this result, the vocalist or speaker must begin by taking breath through the mouth, as we have already insisted, and at once, before there is time for any stiffening of parts, commence to intonate -- _i. e._, as soon as enough air has been inhaled for the purpose intended.”
“Why did he not take up his last words, "Live in peace," and intonate the blessing?”
“And when the favoured one, chosen for the miracle, returns to her village, all the inhabitants crowd to meet her, whilst the bells peal merrily; and when she is seen springing lightly from the vehicle which has brought her home, shouts and sobs of joy burst forth and all intonate the _Magnificat_: Glory to the Blessed Virgin!”
“Toury and Les Aubrais had been left behind, when, at Beaugency, they at last ceased their chat, on hearing Sister Hyacinthe clap her hands and intonate in her fresh, sonorous voice:”
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