monotone
[mon-uh-tohn]
- a vocal utterance or series of speech sounds in one unvaried tone.
- a single tone without harmony or variation in pitch.
- recitation or singing of words in such a tone.
- a person who is unable to discriminate between or to reproduce differences in musical pitch, especially in singing.
- sameness of tone or color, sometimes to a boring degree.
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- monotonous.
- consisting of or characterized by a uniform tone of one color: a monotone drape.Compare monochromatic(defs 1, 2).
- Mathematics. monotonic(def 2).
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Origin of monotone
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Related Words
tedium, dreariness, humdrum, flatness, dryness, sameness, uniformity, similarity, evenness, routine, dullness, continuity, continuance, likeness, oneness, tediousness, ennui, repetitiveness, invariability, equabilityExamples from the Web for monotone
Contemporary Examples
The computer graphics are monotone overlaid in Lucky Charms leprechaun green.
“And to see great fashion,” he added half-heartedly, in monotone and with no punctuation.
Hours passed by and the judge read his charges in a monotone.
Good,” he said, in a monotone voice that sounded more like he meant “bad.
Their carefully scripted words, examined beforehand no doubt by a phalanx of spinmeisters, were barely above a monotone.
Historical Examples
There was a monotone of desolation as she went on speaking in a whisper meant for the ears of no other.
Within the LawMarvin Dana
The inexorable voice went on in its monotone, as if he had not spoken.
Within the LawMarvin Dana
Then her voice rose above the monotone that had contented her hitherto.
Within the LawMarvin Dana
"Her husband caused it by kicking her in the stomach," she said in a monotone.
L'AssommoirEmile Zola
The voice was a monotone, minus expression, almost minus life.
The White DesertCourtney Ryley Cooper
monotone
- a single unvaried pitch level in speech, sound, etc
- utterance, etc, without change of pitch
- lack of variety in style, expression. etc
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- unvarying or monotonous
- Also: monotonic (ˌmɒnəˈtɒnɪk) maths (of a sequence or function) consistently increasing or decreasing in value
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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
Word Origin and History for monotone
n.
"unvarying tone in music or speaking," 1640s; see monotony. OED says use of the word as a noun "is peculiar to Eng." Related: Monotonic; monotonically.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper