Tone

Sound, or the character of a sound, or a sound considered as of this or that character; as, a low, high, loud, grave, acute, sweet, or harsh tone.

Accent, or inflection or modulation of the voice, as adapted to express emotion or passion.

A whining style of speaking; a kind of mournful or artificial strain of voice; an affected speaking with a measured rhythm ahd a regular rise and fall of the voice; as, children often read with a tone.

A sound considered as to pitch; as, the seven tones of the octave; she has good high tones.

The larger kind of interval between contiguous sounds in the diatonic scale, the smaller being called a semitone as, a whole tone too flat; raise it a tone.

The peculiar quality of sound in any voice or instrument; as, a rich tone, a reedy tone.

A mode or tune or plain chant; as, the Gregorian tones.

That state of a body, or of any of its organs or parts, in which the animal functions are healthy and performed with due vigor.

Tonicity; as, arterial tone.

State of mind; temper; mood.

Tenor; character; spirit; drift; as, the tone of his remarks was commendatory.

General or prevailing character or style, as of morals, manners, or sentiment, in reference to a scale of high and low; as, a low tone of morals; a tone of elevated sentiment; a courtly tone of manners.

The general effect of a picture produced by the combination of light and shade, together with color in the case of a painting; -- commonly used in a favorable sense; as, this picture has tone.

To utter with an affected tone.

To give tone, or a particular tone, to; to tune. See Tune, v. t.

To bring, as a print, to a certain required shade of color, as by chemical treatment.

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 behavior I gathered that I had outstayed my welcome"

(linguistics) a pitch or change in pitch of the voice that serves to distinguish words in tonal languages; "the Beijing dialect uses four tones"

(music) the distinctive property of a complex sound (a voice or noise or musical sound); "the timbre of her soprano was rich and lovely"; "the muffled tones of the broken bell summoned them to meet"

the general atmosphere of a place or situation and the effect that it has on people; "the feel of the city excited him"; "a clergyman improved the tone of the meeting"; "it had the smell of treason"

the elastic tension of living muscles, arteries, etc. that facilitate response to stimuli; "the doctor tested my tonicity"

a quality of a given color that differs slightly from another color; "after several trials he mixed the shade of pink that she wanted"