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tone-setter

British

noun

a person or thing that establishes the quality or character that is to be followed subsequently

"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

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tone-setter

Coach JJ Redick, who called Smart the team’s tone-setter on defense, commended Smart’s “care factor,” even when the Lakers fell behind by 18 in the second quarter.

From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 11, 2025

It is the tone-setter for the three days of competition.

From BBC ● Sep. 22, 2025

But a release would certainly open the possibility Denver’s defensive tone-setter has played his last game in navy and orange, if not in the NFL altogether.

From Seattle Times ● Dec. 24, 2023

Head was fielding at cover when Sharma, the India’s skipper and tone-setter, went to launch Maxwell into the leg-side and sliced into the off-side.

From Washington Times ● Nov. 19, 2023

Kuzma did just that, operating as a tone-setter from the start.

From Washington Post ● Oct. 19, 2022

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023