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• tune
  tune

  noun

  a succession of musical sounds forming a melody, with or without the harmony accompanying it.
• Tune
  Tune

  noun

  Thomas James Tommy, born 1939, U.S. dancer, choreographer, actor, singer, and director.

tune

¹ American  

[toon, tyoon] / tun, tjun /

noun

• tunes
  plural

1. a succession of musical sounds forming a melody, with or without the harmony accompanying it.

   He hummed a little tune and tapped his foot on the pavement.

2. a musical setting composed for a specific set of lyrics or words.

   She composed a new tune for the hymn in 1872, which is now the one most commonly used in church choirs.

3. the state of being in the proper pitch.

   He struggled to keep his guitar in tune on stage.

4. agreement in pitch; unison or harmony.

   The two voices were perfectly in tune.

5. proper adjustment, as of radio instruments or circuits with respect to frequency.

6. the state of being aware of and in harmony with someone or something else.

   The foundation works very closely with the local leadership in each community, and is in tune with what they need.

7. Archaic. frame of mind; mood.

8. Obsolete. a tone or sound.

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verb (used with object)

• tunes,
  present (3rd person singular)
• tuned,
  past participle,  past
• tuning
  present participle

1. to adjust (a musical instrument) to a correct or given standard of pitch (often followed byup ).

   All you need to tune a piano is the correct equipment—and a really good sense of pitch.

2. to adapt (the voice, song, etc.) to a particular tone, to the expression of a particular feeling, or the like.

   For some, Christmas means tuning your voices to carols and hymns.

3. to bring (someone or something) into harmony.

4. to adjust for proper functioning or for the desired results.

   The car has a nitrogen sensor that makes it easy for a technician to tune the engine to meet emissions permit levels.

   Examples like this are valuable to us because we can use them to tune our algorithms.

5. Radio and Television.

   1. to adjust (a circuit, frequency, or the like) so as to bring it into resonance with another circuit, a given frequency, or the like.

   2. to adjust (a receiving apparatus) so as to make it compatible in frequency with a transmitting apparatus whose signals are to be received.

   3. to adjust (a receiving apparatus) so as to receive the signals of a particular transmitting station.

6. to put into or cause to be in a receptive condition, mood, etc.; bring into harmony or agreement.

   Try to learn the lessons and tune your brain to start thinking this way, and you'll do just fine in the program.

   In order to further expand our business, we’ll have to tune our approach to the different conditions in different markets.

   Synonyms:

   balance, harmonize

7. Archaic.

   1. to utter, sound, or express musically.

   2. to play upon (a lyre).

verb (used without object)

• tunes,
  present (3rd person singular)
• tuned,
  past participle,  past
• tuning
  present participle

1. to put a musical instrument in tune (often followed byup ).

   We'll be starting the jam session right at 8 p.m.—come early if you need to tune up.

2. to give forth a musical sound.

   Synonyms:

   chime

3. to be in harmony or accord; become responsive.

verb phrase

1. tune out

   1. to adjust a radio or television set so as to stop or avoid receiving (a station or channel).

   2. Slang. to stop paying attention to a person, situation, etc.

2. tune up

   1. to cause a group of musical instruments to be brought to the same pitch.

   2. to begin to sing.

   3. to bring into proper operating order, as a motor.

      Before starting on our trip we should have the car tuned up.

3. tune in to adjust a radio or television set so as to receive (signals, a particular station, etc.).

idioms

1. to the tune of, in or about the amount of.

   In order to expand, they will need capital to the tune of six million dollars.

2. sing a different tune, to be forced to change one's ways, attitude, behavior, etc..

   He will sing a different tune when he has to earn his own money.

3. change one's tune, to reverse one's views; change one's mind.

   She changed her tune about children when she married and had her own.

4. stay tuned,

   1. to continue watching a television channel or listening to a radio station.

      Stay tuned for more classic and contemporary hits.

   2. to keep alert or be on the lookout.

      Stay tuned for our next post with a list of nearby hotels with favorable rates.

      You can see the early stages of the site now, and stay tuned for future developments.

5. call the tune, to decide matters of policy; control.

   He was technically running the business, but his father still called the tune.

Tune ² American  

[toon, tyoon] / tun, tjun /

noun

1. Thomas James Tommy, born 1939, U.S. dancer, choreographer, actor, singer, and director.

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tune British  

/ tjuːn /

noun

1. a melody, esp one for which harmony is not essential

2. the most important part in a musical texture

   the cello has the tune at that point

3. the condition of producing accurately pitched notes, intervals, etc (esp in the phrases in tune, out of tune )

   he can't sing in tune

4. accurate correspondence of pitch and intonation between instruments (esp in the phrases in tune, out of tune )

   the violin is not in tune with the piano

5. the correct adjustment of a radio, television, or some other electronic circuit with respect to the required frequency (esp in the phrases in tune, out of tune )

6. a frame of mind; disposition or mood

7. obsolete a musical sound; note

8. to be in control of the proceedings

9. to alter one's attitude or tone of speech

10. informal to the amount or extent of

    costs to the tune of a hundred pounds

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verb

1. to adjust (a musical instrument or a changeable part of one) to a certain pitch

2. to adjust (a note, etc) so as to bring it into harmony or concord

3. (tr) to adapt or adjust (oneself); attune

   to tune oneself to a slower life

4. to make fine adjustments to (an engine, machine, etc) to obtain optimum performance

5. electronics to adjust (one or more circuits) for resonance at a desired frequency

6. obsolete to utter (something) musically or in the form of a melody; sing

7. slang to annoy or harass someone

tune More Idioms  

More idioms and phrases containing tune

• call the tune
• carry a tune
• change one's tune
• dance to another tune
• in tune
• to the tune of

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• undertune
  noun
• mistune
  verb
• retune
  verb (used with object)
• undertune
  verb (used with object)
• nontuned
  adjective
• untuned
  adjective
• well-tuned
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• tunes
  plural

Participles

• tuning
  present
• tuned
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• tune
  simple
• tunes
  simple
• have tuned
  perfect
• has tuned
  perfect
• am tuning
  progressive
• are tuning
  progressive
• is tuning
  progressive
• have been tuning
  perfect progressive
• has been tuning
  perfect progressive

Past

• tuned
  simple
• had tuned
  perfect
• was tuning
  progressive
• were tuning
  progressive
• had been tuning
  perfect progressive

Future

• will tune
  simple
• will have tuned
  perfect
• will be tuning
  progressive
• will have been tuning
  perfect progressive

Etymology

Origin of tune

First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English (noun); unexplained variant of tone

Explanation

A tune is what you whistle when you're feeling cheerful. It's a melody or a specific sequence of musical notes. Before playing a tune on your guitar, you might want to tune it — in other words, adjust its pitch so it sounds right. As a verb, there are several meanings of tune. You can tune a radio, or adjust the dial until you can heard a certain station, and you can tune a car, or adjust its engine so it works correctly. Tune comes from tone and its Proto-Indo-European root, ten-, "to stretch."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

tune Tune tunes tuned tuning

There were loud cheers from the crowds, with many shouting "thank you Bonnie" as her coffin entered the church to the tune of her hit single If I Sing you a Love Song.

From BBC ● Aug. 17, 2026

Instead of changing a material by adding chemicals or combining it with something else, scientists may be able to tune its electrical properties simply by changing its shape.

From Science Daily ● Aug. 17, 2026

They often tune them to excel at narrow tasks, like summarizing documents or answering customer questions on company-specific topics.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 16, 2026

The Black Crowes broke out with a frisky cover of this Otis Redding tune just as hair metal was giving way to grunge.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 14, 2026

Humming an upbeat tune, I got online and started to go through my latest email thread with Thomas.

From "Sir Fig Newton and the Science of Persistence" by Sonja Thomas

The old move is the easiest one: Tune out the noise.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 14, 2026

Tune in to House of the Dragon: After a slog of a second season, HBO’s Game of Thrones prequel is back with a surprisingly enjoyable third season.

From Slate ● Aug. 6, 2026

Police said three other dives, which took place near Nashville's John C Tune airport, were successfully completed prior to the fatal fall.

From BBC ● Oct. 6, 2025

The aircraft had taken off from John C. Tune Airport in Nashville.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 19, 2025

Tune in at 9:00 p.m. for the president’s National Security Address, to be broadcast on all channels.

From "Internment" by Samira Ahmed

Hopkins weaves in old Welsh folk tunes and nods to impressionistic inspirations like Vaughan Williams and Frederick Delius.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 11, 2026

The record alternates patient mood pieces like this one with more melodic tunes with startling shifts in volume.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 11, 2026

It wriggles back into the streets aiming for friends, tunes, food.

From Salon ● Aug. 11, 2026

With the tunes blaring and while wearing his wife's jacket, Wilton has England's players charging around and taking high catches under the lights.

From BBC ● Jul. 3, 2026

Then he sang Katie songs to the tunes of “Row, Row, Row Your Boat,” “America the Beautiful,” “Kookaburra,” and some songs I didn’t recognize.

From "Kira-Kira" by Cynthia Kadohata

Open-weight means that anyone can copy the product and use it, but the user has no visibility into how it was developed or whether it has been tuned to create secret security vulnerabilities.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 11, 2026

That indicates that the person is not particularly tuned in to the proper spelling of the word, or that they didn't do a close edit of what they wrote, Eggington explains.

From BBC ● Aug. 2, 2026

Because the source generates intense terahertz radiation that can be tuned to different frequencies, the researchers were able to change the material's optical properties, especially its reflectivity, both strongly and rapidly.

From Science Daily ● Jul. 31, 2026

"I would just tell you to stay tuned for more details," she said at a press briefing.

From Barron's ● Jul. 23, 2026

She was being so un-Twig-like, paying attention to our science experiment, so I tuned them out and started doodling snowflakes and flowers in my notebook.

From "The Science of Breakable Things" by Tae Keller

"We believe that such selective translational tuning of gene expression through dietary manipulation likely extends to many other proteins and amino acids."

From Science Daily ● Aug. 3, 2026

But they were not the only ones tuning in.

From BBC ● Jul. 26, 2026

Behind the scenes of soccer commentary: If you’ve been tuning in to the World Cup, you’ve probably been struck by the announcers’ uniquely energetic, passionate commentary.

From Slate ● Jul. 8, 2026

Nestle has also been tuning into social-media trends in the coffee world and adjacent segments, and the popularity of cold coffee has drawn its attention, Touzet said.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 1, 2026

One of the men was tuning his fiddle.

From "Rebecca" by Daphne du Maurier

Related Words

• composition
• ditty
• jingle
• piece
• theme