Showing results for whole tone. Search instead for whole-tones.

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 changes,” she says of that moment.

From Los Angeles Times • Feb. 8, 2023

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

I remember being really challenged by the whole tone of the event.

From Slate • Jan. 24, 2021

NOTE: In case you are curious, the size of the whole tone of the "mean tone" system is also the mean, or average, of the major and minor whole tones.

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