Dictionary

monotonously en · ADV

Etymology

Etymology tree English monotone Proto-Indo-European *h₃ed- Proto-Indo-European *-os Proto-Indo-European *h₃édosder.? Proto-Italic *-ŏ̄dsos? Old Latin -ōssus Latin -ōsus Old French -usbor. Middle English -ous English -ous English monotonous Proto-Indo-European *leyg-der. Proto-Germanic *līkąder. Proto-Germanic *-līkaz Proto-Germanic *-ê Proto-Germanic *-līkê Proto-West Germanic *-līkē Old English -līċe Middle English -ly English -ly English monotonously From monotonous + -ly.

Meanings

1. In a manner that is tedious, repetitious or lacking in variety.
   • She worked monotonously at the assembly line.
   • Time passed as time ever does when passed monotonously, that is, with a degree of rapidity which only astonishes us when it is recalled to mind by some chance circumstance. 1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XIII, in Francesca Carrara. […], volume III, London: Richard Bentley, […], (successor to Henry Colburn), →OCLC, page 97:
   • The face of the dying man in the lingchi video monotonously evokes Maria Falconetti in Carl Theodor Dreyer ’s 1928 “Passion of Joan of Arc.” 2007 July 25, Roberta Smith, “Figures Moving as if in a Trance Across an Isolated, Lawless Island”, in The New York Times, archived from the original on 26 Nov 2022:
2. In a droning manner, that does not change pitch.
   • The minister spoke monotonously and his congregation began to doze.

Forms

Deriveds

nonmonotonously

Relateds

monotonous · monotone

Translations (11)

es monótonamente (in a droning manner) · hu monotonul (in a manner that is tedious) · ca monòtonament (in a droning manner) · it monotonamente (in a droning manner) · gl monotonamente (in a droning manner) · ca monòtonament (in a manner that is tedious) · hu monotonon (in a manner that is tedious) · pt monotonamente (in a droning manner) · hu egyhangúan (in a droning manner) · es monótonamente (in a manner that is tedious) · hu monoton módon (in a manner that is tedious)