halftone
halftone noun: synonym of semitone, half the interval between two notes on a scale.
Noun
halftone (plural halftones)
- 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
- 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
- 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
Verb
halftone (third-person singular simple present halftones, present participle halftoning, simple past and past participle halftoned)
- To reproduce a photograph or other continuous tone image by the use of dots of various sizes.
Synonyms of halftone
- semitone
- half the interval between two notes on a scale
Forms of halftone
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | halftones |
| alternative form | half-tone |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | halftones |
| present participle | halftoning |
| past participle | halftoned |
| past | halftoned |
Origin of halftone
From half- + tone.
Questions about halftone
- What does halftone mean?
- Halftone means synonym of semitone, half the interval between two notes on a scale.
- What part of speech is halftone?
- Halftone can be a noun or a verb.
- What is the plural of halftone?
- The plural of halftone is halftones.
Words near halftone in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: halftone (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Cite this entry: “halftone.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/halftone. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.