half tone

American  

noun

Music.

1. semitone.

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Etymology

Origin of half tone

First recorded in 1645–55

Example Sentences

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

Enter it did: a half tone flat, since it was tuned to British rather than Viennese pitch.

From Time Magazine Archive

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

It will then print with less contrast and more half tone.

From Scientific American Supplement, No. 711, August 17, 1889 by Various