tone

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“
People in Alicia's condition have no sense of immorality That makes it all the more painful," said Arnold; but the interest in his tone was a little remote, and his gesture, too, which was not quite a shrug, had a relegating effect upon any complication between Alicia and Lindsay.

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Definitions (106)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (21)

  1. noun Music A sound of distinct pitch, quality, and duration; a note.
  2. noun Music The interval of a major second in the diatonic scale; a whole step.
  3. noun Music A recitational melody in a Gregorian chant.
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Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (68)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (2)

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Examples (50)

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Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

Allen's Allen's Synonyms and Antonyms

Used in the same context Used in the Same Context

voice ·  expression ·  gesture ·  smile ·  attitude ·  note ·  feel ·  touch ·  style ·  speech ·  air ·  appearance

Used in the same contextWord Family

tone:   tones ·  toned
Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (4)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Middle English ton, from Old French, from Latin tonus, from Greek tonos, string, a stretching; see ten- in Indo-European roots.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (3)

  1. Early modern English also toone (not found in Middle English, where the older form tune occurs); from French ton =Provencal ton =Spanish tono =Portuguese tono =Italian tuono =D. toon =Middle High German tōn, dōn, German ton =Swedish ton =Danish tone (Teutonic from F. or L.), from Latin tonus, a sound, tone, etc., from Greek τόνος, a sound, tone, accent, tension, force, strength, a cord, sinew, literally a stretching, from τείνειν, stretch, =L. ten-d-ere, stretch: see tend, thin. From the same Greek source are ult. English intone, tonal, tonic, atonic, atony, diatonic, entasis, tune, attune, etc.
  2. Early modern English also toone; from tone, n. Cf. tune, v.
  3. Middle English tone, ton, toon, tane, in the tone (Scots the tane), a misdivision of thet one, that one. Cf. tother.
 

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/toʊn/
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