Meaning & use
tonal
Last updated
Relating to tone, especially the pitch, key, or color of sound in music, speech, or art.
See it in a sentence
The painting's tonal range shifted from deep shadow to bright highlight.
Mandarin is a tonal language, in which pitch changes a word's meaning.
A note on using this word
In linguistics, 'tonal languages,' such as Mandarin or Yoruba, use pitch to distinguish word meaning, unlike English.
Words with a similar meaning
pitch-based
Choose a synonym to suit the sentence. Meanings can overlap without being identical.
Words with an opposite meaning
atonal
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