Link Centre Dictionary

tonal

to·nal

UK/ˈtəʊnəl/ US/ˈtoʊnəl/ fairly common

adjective

1.

employing variations in pitch to distinguish meanings of otherwise similar words

  • “Chinese is a tonal language”
Synonyms
2.

having tonality; i.e. tones and chords organized in relation to one tone such as a keynote or tonic

Antonyms
Similar

Origin

From Nahuatl tōnalli (“day, day sign”).

Phrases

  • tonal center
  • tonal noise

Related words

Word family

Pertaining to

WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.