verb
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to pronounce or articulate (continuous connected speech) with a characteristic rise and fall of the voice
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a less common word for intone
Etymology
Origin of intonate
1785–95; < Medieval Latin intonātus, past participle of intonāre to intone. See -ate 1
Explanation
To intonate is to speak in a deliberate, almost musical way. Most poets intonate when they read their poems aloud. You'll intonate when you're speaking carefully to someone who can't hear well, and also when you're giving a speech. Chanting or reciting a story, song, or piece of verse also requires you to intonate — modulating the way your voice rises and falls as you speak. Intonate comes from the Medieval Latin intonare, "speak according to tone," from the Greek root tonos, "string," or "pitch."
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.
Solomon said in a singsong, the way people intonate when they are not quite convinced of what they are saying.
From New York Times • Jan. 18, 2022
They have this way they intonate their words.
From The Guardian • Aug. 17, 2010
It was the singer's duty to intonate it.
From An Obscure Apostle A Dramatic Story by Soissons, C. S. de
The motor ideas with which the speech movement has to start are cut off and the subject yields passively to the fate that he cannot intonate his voice.
From Psychotherapy by Münsterberg, Hugo
Of a truth, she had sworn never to actually speak again, but now it occurred to her that perhaps she might at least intonate.
From Si'Wren of the Patriarchs by Cheney, Roland Jon
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.
