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intonation pattern

British  

noun

  1. linguistics a characteristic series of musical pitch levels that serves to distinguish between questions, statements, and other types of utterance in a language

"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

Example Sentences

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But there's another equally hated speech feature that is achieved at the other end: the high-rising terminal intonation pattern, or "uptalk."

From Salon

“The thing that is remarkable is that they both have this intonation pattern,’’ he said.

From New York Times