Tone definition

Tone





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5 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Tone \Tone\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Toned}; p. pr. & vb. n.
     {Toning}.]
     1. To utter with an affected tone.
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     2. To give tone, or a particular tone, to; to tune. See


        {Tune}, v. t.
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     3. (Photog.) To bring, as a print, to a certain required
        shade of color, as by chemical treatment.
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     {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.
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                  Its thousand hues toned down harmoniusly. --C.
                                                    Kingsley.
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        (c) Fig.: To moderate or relax; to diminish or weaken the
            striking characteristics of; to soften.
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                  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.
            [1913 Webster]
  
     {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.
        [1913 Webster]

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Tone \Tone\ (t[=o]n), n. [F. ton, L. tonus a sound, tone, fr.
     Gr. to`nos a stretching, straining, raising of the voice,
     pitch, accent, measure or meter, in pl., modes or keys
     differing in pitch; akin to tei`nein to stretch or strain.
     See {Thin}, and cf. {Monotonous}, {Thunder}, {Ton} fashion,
     {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.
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              [Harmony divine] smooths her charming tones.
                                                    --Milton.
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              Tones that with seraph hymns might blend. --Keble.
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     2. (Rhet.) Accent, or inflection or modulation of the voice,
        as adapted to express emotion or passion.
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              Eager his tone, and ardent were his eyes. --Dryden.
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     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.
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     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.
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     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.
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     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.
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     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.
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     Note: In this sense, the word is metaphorically applied to
           character or faculties, intellectual and moral; as, his
           mind has lost its tone.
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     6. (Physiol.) Tonicity; as, arterial tone.
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     7. State of mind; temper; mood.
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              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.
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              Their tone was dissatisfied, almost menacing. --W.
                                                    C. Bryant.
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     8. Tenor; character; spirit; drift; as, the tone of his
        remarks was commendatory.
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     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.
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     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.
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     11. (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.
         [Webster 1913 Suppl.]
  
     12. 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.
         [Webster 1913 Suppl.]
  
     13. (Plant Physiol.) The condition of normal balance of a
         healthy plant in its relations to light, heat, and
         moisture.
         [Webster 1913 Suppl.]
  
     {Tone color}. (Mus.) see the Note under def. 4, above.
  
     {Tone syllable}, an accented syllable. --M. Stuart.
        [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  tone
       n 1: the quality of a person's voice; "he began in a
            conversational tone"; "he spoke in a nervous tone of
            voice" [syn: {tone of voice}]
       2: (linguistics) a pitch or change in pitch of the voice that
          serves to distinguish words in tonal languages; "the
          Beijing dialect uses four tones"
       3: (music) the distinctive property of a complex sound (a voice
          or noise or musical sound); "the timbre of her soprano was
          rich and lovely"; "the muffled tones of the broken bell
          summoned them to meet" [syn: {timbre}, {timber}, {quality}]
       4: the general atmosphere of a place or situation and the
          effect that it has on people; "the feel of the city
          excited him"; "a clergyman improved the tone of the
          meeting"; "it had the smell of treason" [syn: {spirit}, {feel},
           {feeling}, {flavor}, {flavour}, {look}, {smell}]
       5: a quality of a given color that differs slightly from a
          primary color; "after several trials he mixed the shade of
          pink that she wanted" [syn: {shade}, {tint}, {tincture}]
       6: a notation representing the pitch and duration of a musical
          sound; "the singer held the note too long" [syn: {note}, {musical
          note}]
       7: a steady sound without overtones; "they tested his hearing
          with pure tones of different frequencies" [syn: {pure tone}]
       8: the elastic tension of living muscles, arteries, etc. that
          facilitate response to stimuli; "the doctor tested my
          tonicity" [syn: {tonicity}, {tonus}] [ant: {atonicity}]
       9: a musical interval of two semitones [syn: {whole tone}, {step},
           {whole step}]
       10: the quality of something (an act or a piece of writing) that
           reveals the attitudes and presuppositions of the author;
           "the general tone of articles appearing in the newspapers
           is that the government should withdraw"; "from the tone
           of her behavior I gathered that I had outstayed my
           welcome"
       v 1: utter monotonously and repetitively and rhythmically; "The
            students chanted the same slogan over and over again"
            [syn: {chant}, {intone}]
       2: of one's speech, varying the pitch [syn: {inflect}, {modulate}]
       3: change the color or tone of; "tone a negative"
       4: change to a color image; "tone a photographic image"
       5: give a healthy elasticity to; "Let's tone our muscles" [syn:
           {tone up}, {strengthen}]

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  488 Moby Thesaurus words for "tone":
     French pitch, Munsell chroma, Zeitgeist, accent, accidental,
     achromatism, action, actions, activity, acts, adaptability,
     address, affect, affectation, air, algorithm, anagnorisis, angle,
     apply paint, approach, architectonics, architecture, argument,
     arrangement, aspect, atmosphere, attack, attitude, audio frequency,
     aura, background, balance, bearing, bedaub, bedizen, beef,
     beefiness, begild, behavior, behavior pattern, behavioral norm,
     behavioral science, bend, besmear, bias, blend, body-build, bounce,
     bounciness, brand, brawn, brawniness, breve, brighten up,
     brightness, brush on paint, brushwork, buoyance, buoyancy,
     calcimine, carriage, cast, catastrophe, character, characteristic,
     characteristics, characterization, chroma, chromatic color,
     chromaticity, chromatism, chromism, classical pitch, climate, coat,
     color, color balance, color harmony, color quality, color scheme,
     coloration, colorimetric quality, coloring, complexion,
     complication, comportment, composition, conduct,
     consecutive intervals, constituents, constitution, continuity,
     contrivance, cool color, course, cover, crasis, crotchet, cue,
     culture pattern, current, custom, dab, dampen, daub,
     decorator color, deep-dye, degree, demeanor, demisemiquaver,
     denouement, deportment, depth, design, development, device, dharma,
     diapason, diatessaron, diathesis, diatonic interval,
     diatonic semitone, dip, direction, dispose, disposition, distemper,
     doing, doings, dominant, dominant note, double whole note,
     double-dye, draftsmanship, drift, dulcetness, dull, dye,
     eighth note, elasticity, emblazon, emphasis, enamel, engild,
     enharmonic, enharmonic diesis, enharmonic interval,
     enharmonic note, episode, ethos, extensibility, fable, face,
     falling action, fashion, fast-dye, feel, feeling, fiber, fifth,
     flat, flexibility, folkway, force, form, fourth, frame,
     frame of mind, frequency, fresco, freshen up, fullness,
     fundamental, fundamental tone, genius, gestures, gild, gimmick,
     give, glacial movement, glaze, gloss, goings-on, grain, grouping,
     guise, habit, half note, half step, halftone, harmonic, heart,
     heftiness, height, hemidemisemiquaver, high pitch, hue, humor,
     humors, huskiness, ilk, illuminate, imbue, incident, incline,
     induce, inflection, influence, ingrain, interval, intonation,
     intonation pattern, involuntary muscle, japan, key, kind, lacquer,
     lay on color, lead, less semitone, lightness, limber up, line,
     line of action, lines, liveliness, local color, low pitch,
     main current, mainstream, maintien, makeup, manner,
     manner of speaking, manner of working, manners, means,
     mellifluence, mellifluousness, melodic interval, melodiousness,
     melody, method, methodology, methods, mien, milieu, mind, minim,
     mode, mode of expression, mode of operation, mode of procedure,
     moderate, modify, modulate, modulation, modus operandi,
     modus vivendi, mold, monotone, monotony, mood, morale, motif,
     motion, motions, move, movement, movements, moves, muscle,
     muscularity, musculature, musical note, musical quality,
     musical sound, musicality, mute, mythos, natural, natural color,
     nature, neutral color, new philharmonic pitch, note,
     observable behavior, octave, order, overtone, paint, painterliness,
     pallor, parallel octaves, parget, partial, partial tone,
     patent note, pattern, peripeteia, perspective, persuade,
     philharmonic pitch, philosophical pitch, phrasing, physique,
     pigment, pitch, pitch accent, plan, plot, poise, port, pose,
     posture, practice, praxis, predispose, presence, prime, procedure,
     proceeding, process, prompt, property, purity, quality,
     quarter note, quaver, quieten, rebound, recognition, reduce,
     register, reinvigorate, report, resilience, resiliency, resonance,
     responding note, responsiveness, revitalize, richness,
     rising action, routine, run, saturation, scheme, second,
     secondary plot, semibreve, semiquaver, semitone, sense, set,
     seventh, shade, shading, shadow, shape, shaped note, sharp,
     shellac, sinew, sinewiness, sinews, sixteenth note, sixth,
     sixty-fourth note, skin color, slant, slop on paint, smear, snap,
     social science, soft-pedal, soften, soften up, somatotype,
     sonority, sonorousness, sort, sound, speech tune, spiccato, spirit,
     spirits, spring, springiness, staccato, stain, stamp,
     standard pitch, state of mind, step, stipple, story, streak,
     stream, stress, stretch, stretchability, stretchiness, stripe,
     structure, style, subdue, subject, subplot, suchness,
     suprasegmental, sustained note, sway, sweetness, swing, switch,
     system, tack, tactics, technique, temper, temperament, tendency,
     tenor, tercet, the drill, the general tendency, the how,
     the main course, the way of, thematic development, theme, thew,
     thewiness, thews, third, thirty-second note, timbre, time spirit,
     tinct, tincture, tinge, tint, tonality, tone color, tone down,
     tone of voice, tone quality, tone up, tonelessness, tonicity,
     tonus, topic, treatment, trend, triplet, tune, tune up,
     tunefulness, turn, twist, type, undercoat, undercolor, undertone,
     unison interval, value, values, varnish, vein, voce, voice,
     voice qualifier, voice quality, voluntary muscle, warm color, wash,
     way, way of life, way of saying, ways, wear down, weigh with,
     whitewash, whole note, whole step, wise, work
  
  

From The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (27 SEP 03) [foldoc]:

  tone
       
          {brightness}
       
       

















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