overtone

[ oh-ver-tohn ]
See synonyms for overtone on Thesaurus.com
noun
  1. Music. an acoustical frequency that is higher in frequency than the fundamental.

  2. an additional, usually subsidiary and implicit meaning or quality: an aesthetic theory with definite political overtones.

Origin of overtone

1
1865–70; translation of German Oberton.See over-, tone

Other words for overtone

Words Nearby overtone

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use overtone in a sentence

  • I know this is the word used in English but “Holocaust” has a sacrificial overtone that is unbearable to me.

  • Since this is a law of vibration, it is unscientific to speak of giving an overtone, for all tones contain overtones.

    Expressive Voice Culture | Jessie Eldridge Southwick
  • Impassioned it continued, and yet with the overtone of a great pity and tenderness now vibrating through it.

    Robert Annys: Poor Priest | Annie Nathan Meyer
  • But now quiet, save for an undescribable, whispering overtone that seemed to permeate the air.

    The Whispering Spheres | Russell Robert Winterbotham
  • In any overtone, the number of the parts or vibrating segments of the string is one more than the number of the overtone.

    Physics | Willis Eugene Tower
  • And the tinkle of myriad glass wind bells held a maddening overtone.

    Shock Treatment | Stanley Mullen

British Dictionary definitions for overtone

overtone

/ (ˈəʊvəˌtəʊn) /


noun
  1. (often plural) additional meaning or nuance: overtones of despair

  2. music acoustics any of the tones, with the exception of the fundamental, that constitute a musical sound and contribute to its quality, each having a frequency that is a multiple of the fundamental frequency: See also harmonic (def. 7), partial (def. 6)

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Scientific definitions for overtone

overtone

[ ōvər-tōn′ ]


The American Heritage® Science Dictionary Copyright © 2011. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.