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intoning

intoning is the present participle and gerund of intone.

Meaning of intone

Verb

intone (third-person singular simple present intones, present participle intoning, simple past and past participle intoned)

(transitive) To give tone or variety of tone to; to vocalize.
(transitive) To utter with a musical or prolonged note or tone; to speak or recite with singing voice; to chant.
- to intone the church service
Synonyms:

sing
(intransitive) To utter a tone; utter a protracted sound.

Noun

intoning (plural intonings)

intonation
- The "tragic elevation" and musical intonings common in early-twentieth-century revivals were looked on as cardinal sins; all efforts were focused on creating a technique that would convey the illusion of "natural" speech[…]1999, Michael A. Morrison, John Barrymore, Shakespearean Actor, page 79

Forms of intoning

plural	intonings

Questions about intoning

What does intoning mean?: Intoning means intonation.
What is intoning the present participle and gerund of?: Intoning is the present participle and gerund of intone.
What part of speech is intoning?: Intoning is a noun.
What is the plural of intoning?: The plural of intoning is intonings.

Words near intoning in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: intoning (page history and authors); intone (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: 2026-09-02

Cite this entry: “intoning.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/intoning. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.