Word.ws English Dictionary

tone

UK/ˈtəʊn//ˈtoʊn/

tone noun: a specific pitch.

Noun

tone (plural tones)

  1. A specific pitch.
  2. (in the diatonic scale) An interval of a major second.
    Synonyms:
    whole tone
  3. (in a Gregorian chant) A recitational melody.
  4. The character of a sound, especially the timbre of an instrument or voice.
  5. The pitch of a word's sound that distinguishes a difference in meaning, as for example in Chinese.
  6. (dated) A whining style of speaking; a kind of mournful or artificial strain of voice; an affected speaking with a measured rhythm and a regular rise and fall of the voice.
    • Children often read with a tone.
  7. The manner in which speech or writing is expressed, especially the aspects of diction (word choice), connotation, emotiveness, and register.
    • Their tone was dissatisfied, almost menacing.1850, William Cullen Bryant, Letters of a Traveller
  8. (obsolete) State of mind; temper; mood.
    • c. 1714 (undated), Henry St John, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke, letter to Alexander Pope
      The strange situation I am in and the melancholy state of public affairs, […] drag the mind down […] from a philosophical tone or temper, to the drudgery of private and public business.
  9. The shade or quality of a colour.
    • We make crude visual distinctions and effectively meaningless categorizations based on average skin tones, such as black or white.2017, Adam Rutherford, A Brief History of Everyone Who Ever Lived, The Experiment, →ISBN, page 81
  10. (painting) The favourable effect of a picture produced by the combination of light and shade, or of colours.
    • This picture has tone.
  11. The definition and firmness of a muscle or organ; see also: tonus.
  12. The state of a living body or of any of its organs or parts in which the functions are healthy and performed with due vigor.
Show 4 more meaningsShow fewer meanings
  1. Normal tension or responsiveness to stimuli.
  2. (slang, African-American Vernacular) a gun
    • But nigga don't step wrong, cuz 8ball keep a tone1993, “9 Little Millimeta Boys”, in 8Ball (lyrics), Comin' Out Hard
    • M.A.C.T.D.O.G got the tone so hoe you know it's on1994, “Murda In Da 1st Degree”, in Princess Loko (lyrics), Ashes 2 Ashes, Dust 2 Dust
  3. (figuratively) The general character, atmosphere, mood, or vibe (of a situation, place, etc.).
    • Her rousing speech gave an upbeat tone to the rest of the evening.
    • Mr O'Brien confirmed the warning from the council was based on the fact that the structure the mural was painted on was not a temporary one and on the claim that it changes the tone of the street and impacts on the area.2016 July 25, Megan McDermott, “'Repeal the 8th' mural in Project Arts Centre in Temple Bar removed”, in Irish Times
  4. (figuratively, Chiefly in the form lower/raise the tone of something) The quality of being respectable or admirable.
    • "I am going to raise the tone of the business. That's wot I want you for. To raise the tone of the business."1904, May Sinclair, The Divine Fire, H. Holt, page 340
    • The teaching we have had of late has lowered the tone of Christianity, as the remarks by the two gentlemen who preceded me will attest; and, instead of producing stalwart manhood, it has generated a brood of mountebanks. Give us a pure Gospel or a vacant pulpit!1911, Charles Augustus Jenkens, The Bride's Return, Or, How Grand Avenue Church Came to Christ, C.H. Robinson, page 67

Verb

tone (third-person singular simple present tones, present participle toning, simple past and past participle toned)

  1. (transitive) to give a particular tone to
  2. (transitive) to change the colour of
    Synonyms:
    color, colour, dye, paint, tint
  3. (transitive) to make (something) firmer
    Synonyms:
    firm, firm up, tone up
  4. (transitive) to utter with an affected tone.

Pronoun

tone

  1. (dialectal) the one (of two)

Proper noun (1) capitalized: Tone

Tone

  1. A male given name, a short form of Anthony/Antony

Proper noun (2) capitalized: Tone

Tone

  1. A river in Somerset, England, which flows into the River Parrett.

tone meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

tone in Hindi

pitch of a word that distinguishes a difference in meaning
लहजा lahjā

tone in Tamil

தொனி

tone in Marathi

टोन

tone in Urdu

tone
سر sur, لہجہ lahja
More languagesFewer languages
tone in Bengali
পর্দা porda
tone in Telugu
కంఠము kaṇṭhamu
tone in Malayalam
കുരൽ kural
tone in Kannada
ಉಲಿಪರಿ, ಪರಿಜು, ಸ್ವರ, ಧ್ವನಿ
tone in Punjabi
ਸੁਰ sur, سر sr
tone in Gujarati
પરદો pardo
tone in Odia
ଟୋନ୍, ଟୋନ୍ କରିବାକୁ
tone in Sanskrit
तान tāna
tone in Nepali
टोन, टोन गर्न
tone in Pashto
آهنگ āháng
tone in Tagalog
tono
tone in Arabic
نَغْمَة naḡma, نَغْم naḡm
tone in Malay
nada, ton, tona
tone in Indonesian
nada
tone in Persian
پرده parde, لحن lahn, تن ton
tone in Thai
วรรณยุกต์ wan-ná-yúk, น้ำเสียง náam-sǐiang
tone in Vietnamese
tiếng, giọng, nốt, âm sắc
tone in Myanmar
အသံအနိမ့်အမြင့် a.sam-a.nim.a.mrang.

Examples of tone in a sentence

  • Got the tone to ya head yo life flashing right front your eyes2002, “Mouth Write a Check”, in Project Pat (lyrics), Layin' da Smack Down:
  • Clair West is done it will change the tone of the neighbourhood.2016 December 30, Francine Kopun, “Sleepy Yonge and St. Clair gets a makeover”, in Toronto Star:
  • But Mr Fagan said the tone of the street was brought down by the presence of people he termed "the Gatwickians" — residents of a rooming house called the Gatwick Private Hotel.2015 July 9, Simon Leo Brown, “St Kilda's Fitzroy Street left to rot says hotel owner”, in ABC News:
  • That story is replicated wherever there is a brightly decorated house and a neighbour who cares about the tone of the street.2017 December 11, Michael Hann, “C7 bulbs or C9s? How Christmas lights became a nerdy obsession”, in The Guardian:

All 40 example sentences with tone

Synonyms of tone

All synonyms of tone

Forms of tone

Noun
pluraltones
Verb
third-person singular presenttones
present participletoning
past participletoned
pasttoned

Past tense of tone: toned

Plural of tone: tones

Origin of tone

From Middle English ton, tone, from Latin tonus (“sound, tone”) (possibly through Old French ton), from Ancient Greek τόνος (tónos, “strain, tension, pitch”), from τείνω (teínō, “to stretch”). Doublet of tune, ton, tonos, and tonus.

From Middle English tone, ton, toon, from the incorrect division of thet one (“the/that one”). Compare Scots tane in the tane; see also tother.

Words formed from tone

Phrases with tone

44 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with tone

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about tone

What does tone mean?
Tone means a specific pitch.
What is tone in Hindi?
Tone in Hindi is लहजा (lahjā). See Tone meaning in Hindi.
How do you use tone in a sentence?
Got the tone to ya head yo life flashing right front your eyes
What part of speech is tone?
Tone can be a noun, a verb, a pronoun or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce tone?
Tone is pronounced /ˈtəʊn/ (UK).
What is the plural of tone?
The plural of tone is tones.

Words near tone in the dictionary

  1. Tondrakian
  2. Tondrakians
  3. Tondreau
  4. Tondreaus
  5. Tondu
  6. tone
  7. tone arm
  8. tone arms
  9. tone cluster
  10. tone color
  11. tone colors

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: tone (page history and authors); Tone (page history and authors); tone (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); tone (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); سر (Urdu) (page history and authors); পর্দা (Bengali) (page history and authors); కంఠము (Telugu) (page history and authors); കുരൽ (Malayalam) (page history and authors); tone (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); પરદો (Gujarati) (page history and authors); tone (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); tone (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); آهنگ (Pashto) (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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-tone.ogg.

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