tone

A specific pitch.

(in the diatonic scale) An interval of a major second.

(in a Gregorian chant) A recitational melody.

The character of a sound, especially the timbre of an instrument or voice.

The pitch of a word's sound that distinguishes a difference in meaning, as for example in Chinese.

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.dated

• Children often read with a tone.

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.

State of mind; temper; mood.obsolete

• 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 o

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.

The favourable effect of a picture produced by the combination of light and shade, or of colours.

• This picture has tone.

to give a particular tone totransitive

to change the colour oftransitive

to make (something) firmertransitive

to utter with an affected tone.transitive

the one (of two)dialectal