half tone

Noun

halftone (plural halftones)

1. Synonym of semitone, half the interval between two notes on a scale.
   • That animals utter musical notes is familiar to every one, as we may daily hear in the singing of birds. It is a more remarkable fact that an ape, one of the Gibbons, produces an exact octave of musical sounds, ascending and descending the scale by half-tones; so that this monkey “alone of brute...1872, Charles Darwin, “Means of Expression in Animals”, in The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals, London: John Murray, […], →OCLC, page 87

   Synonyms:

   semitone, half the interval between two notes on a scale

2. A picture made by using the process of half-toning.
   • Before leaving New York a handsome booklet had been prepared and printed. The brochure contained the names of the commissioners, their public records, halftone portraits and a carefully prepared statement of the objects of the expedition.1917, Joseph G. Butler Jr., A Journey Through France in War Time
3. An intermediate or middle tone in a painting, engraving, photograph, etc.; a middle tint, neither very dark nor very light.
   • “No, I cannot enjoy it,” Cecilia said to Mrs. Devereux; “I don't mind the grey light; cloud and water, and half-tones of colour, are homely English and pleasant, and that opal where the sun should be has a suggestiveness richer than sunlight.[…]”1876, George Meredith, Beauchamp’s Career […], volume II, London: Chapman and Hall, […], →OCLC, page 18

See all 4 meanings of halftone