1. The quality of a person's voice
   "he began in a conversational tone"; "he spoke in a nervous tone of voice";
   - tone of voice
    
2. (music) the distinctive property of a complex sound (a voice, noise or musical sound)
   "the muffled tones of the broken bell summoned them to meet";
   - timbre, quality
    
3. (linguistics) a pitch or change in pitch of the voice that serves to distinguish words in tonal languages
   "the Beijing dialect uses four tones"
    
4. A notation representing the pitch and duration of a musical sound
   "The composer indicated a sustained tone for the final note";
   - note, musical note
    
5. The general atmosphere of a place or situation and the effect that it has on people
   "a clergyman improved the tone of the meeting";
   - spirit, feel, feeling, flavor [US], flavour [Brit, Cdn], look, smell
    
6. The quality of something (an act or a piece of writing) that reveals the attitudes and presuppositions of the author
   "the general tone of articles appearing in the newspapers is that the government should withdraw"; "from the tone of her behaviour I gathered that I had outstayed my welcome"
    
7. A quality of a given colour that differs slightly from another colour
   "after several trials he mixed the tone of pink that she wanted";
   - shade, tint, tincture
    
8. Slight, continuous contraction of muscles, maintaining muscle tone
   "Regular exercise helps maintain good muscle tone";
   - tonicity, tonus
    
9. A steady sound without overtones
   "they tested his hearing with pure tones of different frequencies";
   - pure tone
    
10. A musical interval of two semitones
    "The distance between C and D is a whole tone";
    - whole tone, step, whole step

1. Vary the pitch of one's speech
   "She toned her voice to sound more authoritative";
   - inflect, modulate
    
2. Change the colour or tone of
   "tone a negative"
    
3. Improve muscle strength and firmness through exercise
   "Let's tone our muscles";
   - tone up, strengthen
    
4. Utter monotonously and repetitively and rhythmically
   "The monk toned the ancient chant";
   - chant, intone
    
5. Change to a colour image
   "tone a photographic image"

Derived forms: toning, toned, tones

Type of: ambiance, ambience, atmosphere, auditory sensation, color [US], color in [US], coloring [US], colorise [Brit], colorize [US], colour [Brit, Cdn], colour in [Brit, Cdn], colouring [Brit, Cdn], colourise [Brit], colourize [Brit, Cdn], delivery, discolor [US], discolour [Brit, Cdn], exercise, interval, manner of speaking, mouth, musical interval, musical notation, pitch, quality, sound, sound property, speak, speech, talk, tautness, tenseness, tension, tensity, utter, verbalise [Brit], verbalize, work out

Part of: musical scale, scale

Encyclopedia: Tone, shade and tint