intone
Americanverb (used with object)
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to utter with a particular tone or voice modulation.
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to give tone or variety of tone to; vocalize.
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to utter in a singing voice (the first tones of a section in a liturgical service).
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to recite or chant in monotone.
verb (used without object)
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to speak or recite in a singing voice, especially in monotone; chant.
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Music. to produce a tone, or a particular series of tones, like a scale, especially with the voice.
verb
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to utter, recite, or sing (a chant, prayer, etc) in a monotonous or incantatory tone
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(intr) to speak with a particular or characteristic intonation or tone
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to sing (the opening phrase of a psalm, etc) in plainsong
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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intonesimple
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intonessimple
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have intonedperfect
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has intonedperfect
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am intoningprogressive
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are intoningprogressive
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is intoningprogressive
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have been intoningperfect progressive
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has been intoningperfect progressive
Past
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intonedsimple
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had intonedperfect
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was intoningprogressive
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were intoningprogressive
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had been intoningperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of intone
1475–85; < Medieval Latin intonāre; replacing earlier entone < Middle French entoner < Medieval Latin; see in- 2, tone
Explanation
To intone is to to chant in a flat voice. When you recite a poem you had to memorize in English class, you're likely to intone the lines without much expression. You might intone bad news over the phone, bluntly and unemotionally, and librarians often intone a low command to keep the noise down in the library. People reciting prayers usually intone them as well. In the fourteenth century, the word was entunen, "sing, chant or recite," from a Latin root, intonare, "sing according to tone."
Vocabulary lists containing intone
Number the Stars
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Bless Me, Ultima
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Purple Hibiscus
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Those are the first words of the military Oath of Enlistment—the words that new members of the military, with right hands raised, intone as they join the service.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 29, 2026
Akbar ceased performing the obligatory five prayers that Muslims must intone every day and began to worship “divine light.”
From Textbooks ● Dec. 14, 2022
For the spiritual “There Is a Balm in Gilead,” Tines broke off to intone like a preacher an incident that had happened the night before as he left the park.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 15, 2022
When I was growing up, my father — always eager to instruct his backward son — would regularly intone the phrase, “I shall pass this way but once.”
From Washington Post ● May 25, 2022
He’s always making excuses—“She didn’t mean nothing by it,” “She’s yanking your chain”—when Dina does things like intone “the Tribe has spoken” when Molly expresses an opinion.
From "Orphan Train" by Christina Baker Kline
"Holiday let, second home, second home, holiday let, second home, holiday let," she intones.
From BBC ● Feb. 25, 2026
Nevertheless: “Once more you drown one of your own in the inky depths of democracy,” Cumming intones after Funches poignantly exits.
From Salon ● Jan. 28, 2026
A singer intones a haunting melody—“It’s been a long time and still we are not free.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 5, 2025
But “count no mortal happy till / he has passed the final limit of his life secure from pain,” as the chorus intones at the end of Sophocles’ tragedy.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 13, 2025
"It is both a time for repentance and a time for thanks," intones the mayor.
From "The Hunger Games" by Suzanne Collins
"It's going to be he and I going to November," Bianco intoned at a recent televised debate, nodding towards Hilton.
From Barron's ● May 5, 2026
"Carrageenan, riboflavin, monosodium glutamate and 20 others that I can’t pronounce," he said, as one of the "MAHA moms" gravely intoned, "that stuff's really bad."
From Salon ● Mar. 26, 2025
He was joined on stage by the song's producer, Mustard, who clutched a football while sporting the world's baggiest jeans - before Lamar pointed an imaginary remote control at the camera and intoned, "Game Over".
From BBC ● Feb. 9, 2025
“Tough business, really tough,” he intoned on his way out.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 25, 2024
“In honor of the great orations of antiquity,” Alexander intoned.
From "The Interrupted Tale" by Maryrose Wood
It was an unusual mission for Avraamiy, whose days are usually filled with intoning prayers, counseling his flock and leading the clergymen from the Orthodox Church of Ukraine at the monastery.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 18, 2026
If You're Glad I'll Be Frank imagined the speaking clock as a real woman speaking live, her internal monologue utterly at odds with the deadening repetitiveness of endlessly intoning "at the third stroke..."
From BBC ● Nov. 29, 2025
“Bastards” features Kristofferson’s voice at the end, intoning the line, and is the reason for his co-writing credit, given with permission from his widow.
From Salon ● Sep. 2, 2025
This weekend’s “S.N.L.” broadcast, hosted by Michael B. Jordan and featuring the musical guest Lil Baby, began with a dramatic voice-over intoning, “Criminals beware. There’s a new sheriff in town, and he means business.”
From New York Times ● Jan. 29, 2023
We carried the small brown coffin shoulder high, intoning African liberation songs.
From "Kaffir Boy: An Autobiography" by Mark Mathabane
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
