overtone
Music. an acoustical frequency that is higher in frequency than the fundamental.
an additional, usually subsidiary and implicit meaning or quality: an aesthetic theory with definite political overtones.
Origin of overtone
1Other words for overtone
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Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024
How to use overtone in a sentence
I know this is the word used in English but “Holocaust” has a sacrificial overtone that is unbearable to me.
Claude Lanzmann on 'Shoah', His Memoir, and the Banality of Evil | Clémence Boulouque | June 11, 2012 | THE DAILY BEASTSince this is a law of vibration, it is unscientific to speak of giving an overtone, for all tones contain overtones.
Expressive Voice Culture | Jessie Eldridge SouthwickImpassioned it continued, and yet with the overtone of a great pity and tenderness now vibrating through it.
Robert Annys: Poor Priest | Annie Nathan MeyerBut now quiet, save for an undescribable, whispering overtone that seemed to permeate the air.
The Whispering Spheres | Russell Robert WinterbothamIn any overtone, the number of the parts or vibrating segments of the string is one more than the number of the overtone.
Physics | Willis Eugene Tower
And the tinkle of myriad glass wind bells held a maddening overtone.
Shock Treatment | Stanley Mullen
British Dictionary definitions for overtone
/ (ˈəʊvəˌtəʊn) /
(often plural) additional meaning or nuance: overtones of despair
music acoustics any of the tones, with the exception of the fundamental, that constitute a musical sound and contribute to its quality, each having a frequency that is a multiple of the fundamental frequency: See also harmonic (def. 7), partial (def. 6)
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Scientific definitions for overtone
[ ō′vər-tōn′ ]
The American Heritage® Science Dictionary Copyright © 2011. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
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