whole tone

British

noun

Often shortened to: tone. an interval of two semitones; a frequency difference of 200 cents in the system of equal temperament

"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

whole tone Cultural

An interval between musical notes. Do and re are a whole tone apart, as are re and mi, fa and sol, sol and la, and la and ti.

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.

The whole tone of the broadcast was “infotainment ” at its worst.

From Seattle Times • Oct. 9, 2022

"His whole tone changed," one of the students told Politico.

From Fox News • Nov. 25, 2021

“If we don’t convert that and we punt, the whole tone of this conversation today would probably be different,” Fangio said.

From Washington Times • Nov. 2, 2020

Indeed he has quite elevated the whole tone of the prison-life.

From Slate • Jun. 16, 2018

Now write a whole tone scale beginning on an a flat.

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

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