tone – English noun declension

English noun forms of tone

Noun: tone
Singulartone
Pluraltones

Sample Sentences

  • Children often read with a tone.
  • Their tone was dissatisfied, almost menacing. [1850, William Cullen Bryant, Letters of a Traveller:]
  • 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.
  • 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:]
  • This picture has tone.
  • But nigga don't step wrong, cuz 8ball keep a tone [1993, “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 on [1994, “Murda In Da 1st Degree”, in Princess Loko (lyrics), Ashes 2 Ashes, Dust 2 Dust:]
  • Got the tone to ya head yo life flashing right front your eyes [2002, “Mouth Write a Check”, in Project Pat (lyrics), Layin' da Smack Down:]
  • 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:]
  • Manuel expects that once 2 St. 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:]
  • "What struck me most was not necessarily what was said but ... the tone of the room, ... the fear and anxiety that people have for their family members who are currently in the grip of addiction," Green said. [2022 December 2, “Many solutions, some small, needed to tackle addictions in the N.W.T.”, in CBC:]
  • "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:]
  • 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:]
  • But for anyone hoping that what proved to be a brief two-way female Tory leadership race might have raised the tone of British politics—currently at an all-time low after the vicious backroom machinations of Brexit referendum—the news wasn't promising. [2016 July 11, Leah McLaren, “After Brexit, a political revolution in the U.K.—for women”, in Maclean's:]
  • 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:]

Etymology

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. See: Latin Nouns 'tonus', Ancient Greek Nouns 'τόνος'.

Verbs referencing "tone"

English Nouns din, Spanish Nouns tono, Finnish Nouns tooni.