tonal
/ˈtəʊnəl/US/ˈtoʊnəl/
tonal adjective: of or relating to tones or tonality.
Adjective
tonal (comparative more tonal, superlative most tonal)
- Of or relating to tones or tonality.
- Songs for the family-table on Sabbaths and holidays—songs which give those various holy days tonal expression and which aim to spiritualize the meals.1929, Abraham Zevi Idelsohn, Jewish Music: Its Historical Development, page 358
- Of or relating to the general character, mood, or trend of something.
- The lurid way the story played out felt like a tonal shift for Empire, but not necessarily a bad one—in the process of shedding its cool costume-drama attitude for grotesque family dysfunction, the episode felt for once less like a story about Prohibition and more one about a specific set of people.2011 December 5, James Poniewozik, “Boardwalk Empire Watch: Mother, May I Sleep With Danger?”, in Time, archived from the original on 27 Dec 2019
- Employing tones that have a predictable relationship to some tonic.
- Employing differences in pitch (tones) to distinguish differences in the meaning of otherwise similar words (words which would otherwise be homophonic).
Noun
tonal (plural tonals)
- An animal companion which accompanies a person from birth to death.
- When a tonal suffers misfortune or death, the same thing happens to the person associated with it.1989, Robert Bartley Taylor, Indians of Middle America: an introduction to the ethnology of Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean, page 122
tonal meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
tonal in Hindi
- टोनल
tonal in Tamil
- டோனல்
tonal in Marathi
- टोनल
tonal in Urdu
- ٹونل, ٹونال
More languagesFewer languages
- tonal in Bengali
- টোনাল
- tonal in Telugu
- టోనల్
- tonal in Malayalam
- ടോണൽ, ടോണാൾ
- tonal in Kannada
- ಟೋನಲ್, ಟೋನಾಲ
- tonal in Punjabi
- ਟੋਨਲ, ਟੋਨਾਲ
- tonal in Gujarati
- ટોનલ
- tonal in Odia
- ଟୋନାଲ୍, ଟୋନାଲ
- tonal in Nepali
- टोनल, टोनाल
Examples of tonal in a sentence
- The bass drop—like the tonic cadence in tonal music—has become a convention of the style.
- Songs in a tonal language like Yoruba depend on tonological patterning for their beauty and euphony.
- But the shift is not only tonal or textural, from sweet green growth to fetid brown decay.
Antonyms of tonal
Forms of tonal
| Adjective | |
|---|---|
| comparative | more tonal |
| superlative | most tonal |
| Noun | |
| plural | tonals |
| alternative form | tona |
Origin of tonal
From tone + -al.
From Nahuatl tōnalli (“day, day sign”).
Words formed from tonal
Phrases with tonal
Words that rhyme with tonal
Questions about tonal
- What does tonal mean?
- Tonal means of or relating to tones or tonality.
- What is tonal in Hindi?
- Tonal in Hindi is टोनल. See Tonal meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is tonal?
- Tonal can be an adjective or a noun.
- How do you pronounce tonal?
- Tonal is pronounced /ˈtoʊnəl/ (US).
Words near tonal in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: tonal (page history and authors); tonal (Hindi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); tonal (Tamil, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); tonal (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); tonal (Urdu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); tonal (Bengali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); tonal (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); tonal (Malayalam, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); tonal (Kannada, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); tonal (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); tonal (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); tonal (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); tonal (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-tonal.wav.
Cite this entry: “tonal.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/tonal. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.