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tone - 13 dictionary results
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tone

  [tohn] ,noun, verb, toned, ton⋅ing.
Use tone in a Sentence
–noun
1. any sound considered with reference to its quality, pitch, strength, source, etc.: shrill tones.
2. quality or character of sound.
3. vocal sound; the sound made by vibrating muscular bands in the larynx.
4. a particular quality, way of sounding, modulation, or intonation of the voice as expressive of some meaning, feeling, spirit, etc.: a tone of command.
5. an accent peculiar to a person, people, locality, etc., or a characteristic mode of sounding words in speech.
6. stress of voice on a syllable of a word.
7. Linguistics. a musical pitch or movement in pitch serving to distinguish two words otherwise composed of the same sounds, as in Chinese.
8. Music.
a. a musical sound of definite pitch, consisting of several relatively simple constituents called partial tones, the lowest of which is called the fundamental tone and the others harmonics or overtones.
b. an interval equivalent to two semitones; a whole tone; a whole step.
c. any of the nine melodies or tunes to which Gregorian plainsong psalms are sung.
9. a quality of color with reference to the degree of absorption or reflection of light; a tint or shade; value.
10. that distinctive quality by which colors differ from one another in addition to their differences indicated by chroma, tint, shade; a slight modification of a given color; hue: green with a yellowish tone.
11. Art. the prevailing effect of harmony of color and values.
12. Physiology.
a. the normal state of tension or responsiveness of the organs or tissues of the body.
b. that state of the body or of an organ in which all its functions are performed with healthy vigor.
c. normal sensitivity to stimulation.
13. a normal healthy mental condition.
14. a particular mental state or disposition; spirit, character, or tenor.
15. a particular style or manner, as of writing or speech; mood: the macabre tone of Poe's stories.
16. prevailing character or style, as of manners, morals, or philosophical outlook: the liberal tone of the 1960's.
17. style, distinction, or elegance.
–verb (used with object)
18. to sound with a particular tone.
19. to give the proper tone to (a musical instrument).
20. to modify the tone or general coloring of.
21. to give the desired tone to (a painting, drawing, etc.).
22. Photography. to change the color of (a print), esp. by chemical means.
23. to render as specified in tone or coloring.
24. to modify the tone or character of.
25. to give or restore physical or mental tone to.
–verb (used without object)
26. to take on a particular tone; assume color or tint.
—Verb phrases
27. tone down,
a. to become or cause to become softened or moderated: The newspaper toned down its attack.
b. Painting. to make (a color) less intense in hue; subdue.
28. tone up,
a. to give a higher or stronger tone to.
b. to gain or cause to gain in tone or strength: toning up little-used muscles.
29. tone with or in with, to harmonize in tone or coloring; blend: The painting tones with the room.
Origin:
1275–1325; ME (n.) < L tonus < Gk tónos strain, tone, mode, lit., a stretching, akin to teínein to stretch

Related forms:
toneless, adjective
tone⋅less⋅ly, adverb
tone⋅less⋅ness, noun

Synonyms:
1. See sound 1 . 15. spirit, quality, temper.

Tone

  [tohn]
–noun
(Theobald) Wolfe, 1763–98, Irish nationalist and martyr for independence.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
Cite This Source Link To tone
tone   (tōn)   
n.  
  1. Music
    1. A sound of distinct pitch, quality, and duration; a note.
    2. The interval of a major second in the diatonic scale; a whole step.
    3. A recitational melody in a Gregorian chant.
    4. The quality or character of sound.
    5. The characteristic quality or timbre of a particular instrument or voice.
    6. The pitch of a word used to determine its meaning or to distinguish differences in meaning.
    7. The particular or relative pitch of a word, phrase, or sentence.
    8. A color or shade of color: light tones of blue.
    9. Quality of color: The green wallpaper had a particularly somber tone.
    10. The normal state of elastic tension or partial contraction in resting muscles.
    11. Normal firmness of a tissue or an organ.
    1. The quality or character of sound.
    2. The characteristic quality or timbre of a particular instrument or voice.
    3. The pitch of a word used to determine its meaning or to distinguish differences in meaning.
    4. The particular or relative pitch of a word, phrase, or sentence.
    5. A color or shade of color: light tones of blue.
    6. Quality of color: The green wallpaper had a particularly somber tone.
    7. The normal state of elastic tension or partial contraction in resting muscles.
    8. Normal firmness of a tissue or an organ.
    1. The pitch of a word used to determine its meaning or to distinguish differences in meaning.
    2. The particular or relative pitch of a word, phrase, or sentence.
    3. A color or shade of color: light tones of blue.
    4. Quality of color: The green wallpaper had a particularly somber tone.
    5. The normal state of elastic tension or partial contraction in resting muscles.
    6. Normal firmness of a tissue or an organ.
  4. Manner of expression in speech or writing: took an angry tone with the reporters.
  5. A general quality, effect, or atmosphere: a room with an elegant tone.
    1. A color or shade of color: light tones of blue.
    2. Quality of color: The green wallpaper had a particularly somber tone.
    3. The normal state of elastic tension or partial contraction in resting muscles.
    4. Normal firmness of a tissue or an organ.
  7. The general effect in painting of light, color, and shade.
  8. Physiology
    1. The normal state of elastic tension or partial contraction in resting muscles.
    2. Normal firmness of a tissue or an organ.
v.   toned, ton·ing, tones

v.   tr.
  1. To give a particular tone or inflection to.
  2. To soften or change the color of (a painting or photographic negative, for example).
  3. To sound monotonously; intone.
  4. To make firmer or stronger. Often used with up: exercises that tone up the body.
v.   intr.
  1. To assume a particular color quality.
  2. To harmonize in color.
Phrasal Verb(s):
tone downTo make less vivid, harsh, or violent; moderate.

[Middle English ton, from Old French, from Latin tonus, from Greek tonos, string, a stretching; see ten- in Indo-European roots.]
Tone   (tōn)   
Irish nationalist who helped secure Parliament's passage of the Catholic Relief Act of 1793 and planned a French invasion of Ireland (1796).
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
Cite This Source

Tone

Tone\, n. 1. (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.

2. 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. --Sir G. Parker.

3. (Plant Physiol.) The condition of normal balance of a healthy plant in its relations to light, heat, and moisture.

Tone

Tone\, n. [F. ton, L. tonus a sound, tone, fr. Gr. ? a stretching, straining, raising of the voice, pitch, accent, measure or meter, in pl., modes or keys differing in pitch; akin to ? to stretch or strain. See Thin, and cf. Monotonous, Thunder, Ton fasion,Tune.]

1. 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. --Milton.

Tones that with seraph hymns might blend. --Keble.

2. (Rhet.) Accent, or inflection or modulation of the voice, as adapted to express emotion or passion.

Eager his tone, and ardent were his eyes. --Dryden.

3. 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.

4. (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.

5. (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.

6. (Physiol.) Tonicity; as, arterial tone.

7. 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. --Bolingbroke.

Their tone was dissatisfied, almost menacing. --W. C. Bryant.

8. Tenor; character; spirit; drift; as, the tone of his remarks was commendatory.

9. General or prevailing character or style, as of morals, manners, or sentiment, in reference to a scale of high and low; as, a low tone of morals; a tone of elevated sentiment; a courtly tone of manners.

10. The general effect of a picture produced by the combination of light and shade, together with color in the case of a painting; -- commonly used in a favorable sense; as, this picture has tone.

Tone color. (Mus.) see the Note under def. 4, above.

Tone syllable, an accented syllable. --M. Stuart.

Tone

Tone\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Toned; p. pr. & vb. n. Toning.]

1. To utter with an affected tone.

2. To give tone, or a particular tone, to; to tune. See Tune, v. t.

3. (Photog.) To bring, as a print, to a certain required shade of color, as by chemical treatment.

To tone down. (a) To cause to give lower tone or sound; to give a lower tone to. (b) (Paint.) To modify, as color, by making it less brilliant or less crude; to modify, as a composition of color, by making it more harmonius.

Its thousand hues toned down harmoniusly. --C. Kingsley. (c) Fig.: To moderate or relax; to diminish or weaken the striking characteristics of; to soften.

The best method for the purpose in hand was to employ some one of a character and position suited to get possession of their confidence, and then use it to tone down their religious strictures. --Palfrey.

To tone up, to cause to give a higher tone or sound; to give a higher tone to; to make more intense; to heighten; to strengthen.
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.
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Language Translation for : tone
Spanish: tono,
German: der Ton,
Japanese: 声の調子
More Translations »

tone 
1340, from O.Fr. ton (13c.), from L. tonus "a sound, tone, accent," lit. "stretching" (in M.L., a term peculiar to music), from Gk. tonos "vocal pitch, raising of voice, accent, key in music," originally "a stretching, taut string," related to teinein "to stretch" (see tenet). Sense of "manner of speaking" is from 1610. First reference to firmness of body is from 1669. The verb meaning "to impart tone to" is recorded from 1811. Tonal is attested from 1776; atonal first attested 1922; tonality is from 1838.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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Main Entry: 1tone
Pronunciation: 'tOn
Function: noun
1 : a sound of definite pitch and vibration
2 a : the state of aliving body or of any of its organs or parts in which the functions are healthy and performed with due vigor b : normal tension or responsiveness to stimuli; specifically : TONUS 2

Main Entry: 2tone
Function: transitive verb
Inflected Forms: toned; ton·ing
: to impart tone to tone up thesystem> <tone the muscles>
Merriam-Webster's Medical Dictionary, © 2002 Merriam-Webster, Inc.
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tone (tōn)
n.

  1. The quality or character of sound.
  2. The character of voice expressing an emotion.
  3. The normal state of elastic tension or partial contraction in resting muscles.
  4. Normal firmness of a tissue or an organ.
v. toned, ton·ing, tones
To give tone or firmness to.

The American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.
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tone
brightness

The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing, © 1993-2007 Denis Howe
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TONE
Trial of Nonpharmacologic Interventions in the Elderly
The American Heritage® Abbreviations Dictionary, Third Edition
Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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