tone language

noun

a language, as Swedish, Chinese, Yoruba, or Serbo-Croatian, in which words that are otherwise phonologically identical are distinguished by having different pitches or pitch contour.

Origin of tone language

First recorded in 1905–10

Words Nearby tone language

tone colour
tone control
tone-deaf
tone dialing
tone down
tone language
toneless
toneme
tone painting
tone poem
tone policing

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use tone language in a sentence

Yet there is abundant evidence of a tone language among them.
The Coming of the Fairies | Arthur Conan Doyle

British Dictionary definitions for tone language

tone language

noun

a language, such as Chinese or certain African languages, in which differences in tone may make differences in meaning

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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