half tone
Americannoun
Etymology
Origin of half tone
First recorded in 1645–55
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.
Sometimes, as in “September 2006,” the road is clear and the progress steady: about a half tone every 20 seconds, to span two octaves.
From New York Times ● Sep. 26, 2014
Wispelwey has done it at 397 hertz, a full tone below the modern A tuning, and a semitone, or half tone, below the usual baroque A which is 415 hertz.
From Reuters ● Jan. 31, 2013
In France, U.S.O. entertainers claimed to have discovered that the Nazis had tuned all French pianos one half tone low.*
From Time Magazine Archive
Enter it did: a half tone flat, since it was tuned to British rather than Viennese pitch.
From Time Magazine Archive
The piano proved to be a half tone below pitch, but Brahms was equal to the dilemma.
From The World's Great Men of Music Story-Lives of Master Musicians by Brower, Harriette
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.
