Word.ws English Dictionary

tritone

UK/ˈtɹaɪˌtəʊ̯n/US/ˈtɹaɪˌtoʊn/

tritone noun: an interval of three whole tones.

Noun (1)

tritone (plural tritones)

  1. An interval of three whole tones.
    • Near-synonyms: augmented fourth, diminished fifth
    • The tritone has a pitch ratio close to 17:12.

Noun (2)

tritone (plural tritones)

  1. A picture printed in three shades.
    • In Photoshop’s Duotone mode you can create monotones, duotones, tritones, and quadtones—grayscale images to which you add one, two, three, or four colors.1995, Adele Droblas Greenberg, Seth Greenberg, “Converting from One Mode to Another”, in Fundamental Photoshop, 2nd edition, Osborne McGraw-Hill, →ISBN, page 380
    • When using tritones or quadtones (in which three colours are blended together) all the secondary colours are mixed together.2003, Duncan Evans, “Duotones and Tritones”, in A Comprehensive Guide to Digital Portrait Photography, AVA Publishing SA, →ISBN, page 115

Adjective

tritone (not comparable)

  1. Having three tones.
    • The first cotume^([sic]) in which Mrs. Earle appeared was a tritone dress of crepe, with a brown velour cloche and brown calf sling pumps.1950 October 15, “Local Matrons Smartly Model Clothes Here At Event By Junior League”, in The Greenville News, volume LXXVI, number 288, Greenville, S.C., page two
    • Fortrel-and-rayon-linen tritone dress, with drawstring waist.1963 May, “Thirty summer fashions”, in McCall’s, page 186
    Synonyms:
    tritoned

Examples of tritone in a sentence

  • The mini-epic “Seasons in the Abyss,” with its ringing tritone interval at the beginning, its extended solos, its medium tempo, was as close as Slayer got to a groove.2007 February 17, Ben Ratliff, “For Some Unmellowed Metalheads, Middle Age Is Nothing to Fear”, in New York Times:
  • The two colours need not be black and grey; computer duotones can be created from a greyscale original in any two colours; tritones use three inks and quadtones four.2010, David Präkel, “Duotone”, in The Visual Dictionary of Photography, AVA Publishing SA, →ISBN, page 97:
  • Tritone jacket has contrast nylon inserts. 80(Blue/Red/Wht.), 38(Beige/Navy/Red).1979, “Killy Triple Gold Jackets”, in Christmas Wish Book, page 360:
  • It is hard to believe that today’s signs may be tomorrow’s beloved ghosts, but sure as my 1970’s polyester tritone shirt and my plebeian 1964 Volvo are now “classics,” it will likely be so.2013, Alexandra Horowitz, “Minding Our Qs”, in On Looking: Eleven Walks with Expert Eyes, Scribner, →ISBN, pages 69–70:

Synonyms of tritone

All synonyms of tritone

Forms of tritone

pluraltritones
alternative formtri-tone

Origin of tritone

Learned borrowing from Medieval Latin tritonus, itself borrowed from Ancient Greek τρίτονος (trítonos). By surface analysis, tri- + tone.

From tri- + tone.

Words formed from tritone

Questions about tritone

What does tritone mean?
Tritone means an interval of three whole tones.
How do you use tritone in a sentence?
The mini-epic “Seasons in the Abyss,” with its ringing tritone interval at the beginning, its extended solos, its medium tempo, was as close as Slayer got to a groove.
What part of speech is tritone?
Tritone can be a noun or an adjective.
How do you pronounce tritone?
Tritone is pronounced /ˈtɹaɪˌtəʊ̯n/ (UK).
What is the plural of tritone?
The plural of tritone is tritones.

Words near tritone in the dictionary

  1. tritomerites
  2. triton
  3. Triton Island
  4. tritonal
  5. tritonality
  6. tritone
  7. tritoned
  8. tritones
  9. Tritoness
  10. Tritonesses
  11. tritonia

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: tritone (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: “tritone.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/tritone. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.