tonal en · ADJ · etymology 1
Pronunciation
- /ˈtəʊnəl/ (Received-Pronunciation)
- (Southern-England) audio
- /ˈtoʊnəl/ (General-American)
Etymology
From tone + -al.
Meanings
-
Of or relating to tones or tonality.
Songs for the family-table on Sabbaths and holidays—songs which give those various holy days tonal expression and which aim to spiritualize the meals.
1929, Abraham Zevi Idelsohn, Jewish Music: Its Historical Development, page 358:
-
Of or relating to the general character, mood, or trend of something.
The lurid way the story played out felt like a tonal shift for Empire, but not necessarily a bad one—in the process of shedding its cool costume-drama attitude for grotesque family dysfunction, the episode felt for once less like a story about Prohibition and more one about a specific set of people.
2011 December 5, James Poniewozik, “Boardwalk Empire Watch: Mother, May I Sleep With Danger?”, in Time, archived from the original on 27 Dec 2019:
- Employing tones that have a predictable relationship to some tonic.
- Employing differences in pitch (tones) to distinguish differences in the meaning of otherwise similar words (words which would otherwise be homophonic).
Forms
| Spelling | Features | Labels | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| most tonal | Degree=Sup | lexicographic | |
| more tonal | Degree=Cmp | lexicographic |
Antonyms
Deriveds
tonal center · tonalism · equitonal · tritonal · pantonal · nontonal · monotonal · pretonal · antitonal · semitonal · neotonal · tonalist · polytonal · tonal noise · microtonal · subtonal
Relateds
Translations (22)
ga tonúil (of or relating to tones or tonality) · it tonale (of or relating to tones or tonality) · fi tonaalinen (of or relating to tones or tonality) · ca tonal (of or relating to tones or tonality) · es tonal (of or relating to tones or tonality) · ro tonal (employing differences in pitch to distinguish differences in meaning) · ro tonal (of or relating to tones or tonality) · es tonal (employing tones that have a predictable relationship to some tonic) · bg тонален (of or relating to tones or tonality) · it tonale (employing differences in pitch to distinguish differences in meaning) · ru то́новый (of or relating to tones or tonality) · ga tonúil (employing tones that have a predictable relationship to some tonic) · de tonal (of or relating to tones or tonality) · pt tonal (of or relating to tones or tonality) · de tonal (employing differences in pitch to distinguish differences in meaning) · fr tonal (of or relating to tones or tonality) · de tonal (employing tones that have a predictable relationship to some tonic) · nl tonaal (of or relating to tones or tonality) · fi tonaalinen (employing tones that have a predictable relationship to some tonic) · fi tonaalinen (employing differences in pitch to distinguish differences in meaning) · ga tonúil (employing differences in pitch to distinguish differences in meaning) · ru тона́льный (of or relating to tones or tonality)