tonality
Americannoun
plural
tonalities-
Music.
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the sum of relations, melodic and harmonic, existing between the tones of a scale or musical system.
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a particular scale or system of tones; a key.
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(in painting, graphics, etc.) the system of tones or tints, or the color scheme, of a picture.
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the quality of tones.
noun
-
music
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the actual or implied presence of a musical key in a composition
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the system of major and minor keys prevalent in Western music since the decline of modes Compare atonality
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the overall scheme of colours and tones in a painting
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of tonality
Vocabulary lists containing tonality
Music - Middle School
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Music - High School
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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.
“It’s a change of tonality without a change of policy.”
From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 15, 2026
Watching people record harmonies in real time, everyone on one mic, having to match the tonality of everybody else.
From Los Angeles Times • Dec. 16, 2024
“This time, however, we did it the wrong way. We lacked sensitivity around an incredibly serious tragedy, and our tonality was completely inappropriate. We are so sorry.”
From Seattle Times • May 23, 2023
But this production imbues modern vernacular in its tonality, and in a way that the audience understands.
From Salon • May 18, 2023
Of all his impressionable Viennese pupils, none embraced this dismantling of tonality quite as enthusiastically as Arnold Schoenberg.
From "The Story of Music" by Howard Goodall
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.
