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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

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Etymology

Origin of tune

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

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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

"We know the liver is very much in tune with the body's circadian rhythms," he said.

From Science Daily ● Oct. 15, 2026

O’Donnell said the star has told Nascar officials “you better be ready for this. …People are going to tune in that have never seen a race.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 12, 2026

It doesn’t help that it’s not just crafters who tune into these conversations.

From Slate ● Oct. 11, 2026

Coming down hard on Pages was a change of tune for Roberts, who early in the season encouraged Dodgers hitters to be more aggressive making challenges.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 7, 2026

Dad is great, but he’s an inventor and he’d probably tune out while he sketched gigantic catapults and estimated the tensile strength required for a bungee cord to send a one-man glider into orbit.

From "Lawn Boy Returns" by Gary Paulsen

Tune in here for details of that conversation later this week.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 21, 2026

Tune into a smartphone soap opera: Are we entering a new phase of television?

From Slate ● Sep. 16, 2026

Tune in to the 2026 Oscars to find out.

From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 11, 2026

"Tune Out the Noise" also highlights how these insights led to the creation of index funds and democratized investing, allowing millions to participate in market growth without needing to become financial experts.

From Salon ● Apr. 26, 2025

This was the idea of one of his most brilliant contemporaries, Paul Simon, with his knowingly entitled 1973 hit ‘American Tune’.

From "The Story of Music" by Howard Goodall

I still devour new music this way, clocking a daily average of four hours of tunes familiar and novel.

From Salon ● Oct. 4, 2026

Too often, the tracks fall into an in-between space, where they’re not rhythmically interesting enough to make you want to move and don’t have the tunes to stand up as pop.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 22, 2026

That material and the five other previously unheard tunes, as well as demos and remastered songs, form part of a new, posthumous album called The Shel Talmy Recordings.

From BBC ● Sep. 17, 2026

For more than 50 years, with a few breaks in between, Squeeze has been making memorable tunes by marrying infectious pop melodies with sophisticated and literate lyrics, often about the complexity of relationships.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 16, 2026

In the car, George and Emmett sing show tunes along with channel 72, which, as Aunt Nancy likes to put it, is just another reason the two of them were destined to fall in love.

From "A Bird Will Soar" by Alison Green Myers

For the past year or so, I’ve been tuned in to incessant chatter about cortisol, the hormone most famously associated with stress.

From Slate ● Oct. 9, 2026

For Blow, creating his own engine in this language meant he could build something "tuned and authored very specifically" to what he wanted to make.

From BBC ● Oct. 6, 2026

Since Singapore joined F1’s schedule in 2008, the brains behind the finely tuned machines at the likes of Ferrari and McLaren have brought that same optimization to jet lag.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 5, 2026

"We then tuned to the tricritical point and measured the lowest levels of its distinct spectrum, which came out in the different ratios theory predicts."

From Science Daily ● Oct. 1, 2026

I stay tuned through the weekend, but no matter how many times I check my email, there isn’t anything from Ron B. Tully.

From "The Wrong Way Home" by Kate O’Shaughnessy

As his phone overheated in North Carolina, he decided that instead of tuning out the noise, he would jump cleats-first into the comments.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 8, 2026

Arellano: You know that Jake Tapper knows the average age of the audience tuning in to the debate is 65 or older when he quoted Johnny Carson’s famous Burbank putdown.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 1, 2026

Beyond the broadcast networks, the wider media ecosystem is tuning him out.

From Salon ● Sep. 24, 2026

Along with other countries like Canada and Australia, Porchfests have been tuning up in more locations across the U.S.

From MarketWatch ● Sep. 24, 2026

It is clear that the outer notes were a perfect fourth apart, but the exact tuning of the inner notes is not certain.

From "Understanding Basic Music Theory" by Catherine Schmidt-Jones and Russel Jones

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Related Words

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