intone
UK/ɪnˈtəʊn//ɪnˈtoʊn/
intone verb: to give tone or variety of tone to; to vocalize.
Verb
intone (third-person singular simple present intones, present participle intoning, simple past and past participle intoned)
- To give tone or variety of tone to; to vocalize.
- To utter with a musical or prolonged note or tone; to speak or recite with singing voice; to chant.
- to intone the church service
- But when the moon rose and the breeze awakened, and the sedges stirred, and the cat’s-paws raced across the moonlit ponds, and the far surf off Wonder Head intoned the hymn of the four winds, the trinity, earth and sky and water, became one thunderous symphony—a harmony of sound and colour silvered...1907 August, Robert W[illiam] Chambers, chapter VIII, in The Younger Set, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, →OCLC
- Synonyms:
- sing
- To utter a tone; utter a protracted sound.
intone meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Bengali and Malayalam
intone in Tamil
- ஒரே தொனியில் பாடு
intone in Urdu
- آواز بڑھانا
intone in Bengali
- সুর করে পড়া, মন্ত্রপাঠ করা, একঘেয়ে সুরে বলা
intone in Malayalam
- recite, chant, sing
- ആലപിക്കുക, ചൊല്ലുക, വദിക്കുക, ജപിക്കുക, പാടുക, ഓതുക
More languagesFewer languages
- intone in Kannada
- ಹಾಡಾಡು, ಎಸೆನುಡಿ
Examples of intone in a sentence
- She was listening distractedly as an elderly docent intoned to a circle of listless children.
- Adopting a Vaderesque voice, he intoned, “Luke, I am your federal agent.
- Inasmuch as he intones the requisite égalitarian verities of multicultural rectitude, Cotler cannot hide his bias.
Synonyms of intone
Forms of intone
| third-person singular present | intones |
|---|---|
| present participle | intoning |
| past participle | intoned |
| past | intoned |
Origin of intone
From Middle English entune, entone, from Old French entoner, from Medieval Latin intonō, from in- (inchoative prefix) + tonus (“pitch, tone”) + -ō (verb-forming suffix); doublet of intonate. Cognate with French entonner, Italian intonare.
Words formed from intone
Words that rhyme with intone
48 more rhymesFewer rhymes
- moan
- throne
- atone
- clone
- crone
- prone
- depone
- hone
- loan
- cologne
- condone
- disenthrone
- disown
- eau de cologne
- enthrone
- groan
- roan
- Sloan
- Sloane
- thrown
- unknown
- bemoan
- cobblestone
- Copplestone
- grown
- joan
- known
- none
- overgrown
- pension
- phone
- postpone
- redstone
- sone
- Stallone
- answer phone
- arthron
- beknown
- cauterizing stone
- compone
- crosne
- crown
- cuboidal bone
- cuttlefish bone
- Ediphone
- enzone
- flown
- Four Shire Stone
Questions about intone
- What does intone mean?
- Intone means to give tone or variety of tone to; to vocalize.
- What is intone in Tamil?
- Intone in Tamil is ஒரே தொனியில் பாடு. See Intone meaning in Tamil.
- What part of speech is intone?
- Intone is a verb.
- How do you pronounce intone?
- Intone is pronounced /ɪnˈtoʊn/ (US).
- What is the past tense of intone?
- The past tense of intone is intoned.
Words near intone in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: intone (page history and authors); intone (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); intone (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); Intone (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); intone (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license); intone (Kannada Wiktionary) (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.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-intone.ogg.
Cite this entry: “intone.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/intone. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.