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whole tone

British  

noun

  1. 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  
  1. 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

"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 Seattle Times • Nov. 2, 2020

“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

In this system, for example, the major whole tone discussed above measures 204 cents, the minor whole tone 182 cents, and a pure fifth is 702 cents.

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