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tone
used in a sentence

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Definition the general feeling, mood, or attitude of something — especially of something said or written

See a comprehensive dictionary for the many other common and less common meanings of tone including:
  • a quality of sound, music, or voice
  • a quality of color
  • a quality of muscles seen after exercise, or the act of exercising to create that quality
  • signals from a telephone

The expression "tone down", means to make something less forceful.
  • Which of the following words best maintains the tone established in this passage.
tone = general feeling
  • Would you describe the author's tone as more optimistic or more pessimistic?
    • tone = general feeling or attitude
  • The gypsies may not have known the language, but there was no mistaking the tone, in whatever tongue the words were spoken.
    Bram Stoker  --  Dracula
    • tone = general feeling, mood, or attitude
  • HATHORNE, with a mystical tone: God be praised!
    Arthur Miller  --  The Crucible
    • tone = quality of voice expressing a feeling or attitude
  • To the average person, Celeste's tone probably sounded sincere, but I could see through it.
    Kiera Cass  --  The Selection
    • tone = quality of the voice that expresses a general feeling, mood, or attitude
  • If he'd recognized the offended tone in Liesel's voice, he certainly wasn't showing it.
    Markus Zusak  --  The Book Thief
    • tone = general feeling, mood, or attitude
  • "You were down at the bottom, weren't you?" he asked, not in the official courtroom tone he had used before, but in a friend's voice.
    John Knowles  --  A Separate Peace
    • tone = quality of voice expressing an attitude
  • Mrs. Merriweather was one of those childless adults who find it necessary to assume a different tone of voice when speaking to children.
    Harper Lee  --  To Kill a Mockingbird
    • tone = pitch (sound of voice) that expressed an attitude or feeling
  • His tone conveyed a warning, given out of the pride of ownership, and the boys ate faster while there was still time.
    William Golding  --  Lord of the Flies
    • tone = quality of the voice that expresses a general feeling, mood, or attitude
  • "Not for long," said Hermione in a satisfied tone.
    J.K. Rowling  --  Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
    • tone = general feeling, mood, or attitude of something
  • "Least of all," she continued in another tone "why you don't take soma when you have these dreadful ideas of yours."
    Aldous Huxley  --  Brave New World
    • tone = quality of the voice that expresses a general feeling, mood, or attitude
  • "I suppose you do it to keep your figure," he added in a mocking tone.
    Anne Frank  --  The Diary of a Young Girl
    • tone = quality of voice expressing an attitude
  • Something in the tone of his voice seemed to add, 'that bloody fool'.
    George Orwell  --  1984
    • tone = quality of voice expressing an attitude
  • It's the same question he asked Amanda, but this time his tone is sincere.
    Stephanie Perkins  --  Anna and the French Kiss
    • tone = general attitude
  • She thought of the elementary school, just a mile away, the order there and the ordinariness, and she thought of Kay Marshall's disapproving tone, and yet she kept going.
    Kim Edwards  --  The Memory Keeper's Daughter
    • tone = the general feeling, mood, or attitude of something
  • "That's the greaser that jockeys for the Slash J sometime," she said, as if we couldn't hear her. I had heard the same tone a million times: "Greaser... greaser... greaser."
    S.E. Hinton  --  The Outsiders
    • tone = attitude expressed in the sound of the voice
  • He wasn't including himself in this question: his tone was one of detached but not very strong interest, as if he were conducting a survey of people's less attractive personal habits, such as nose-picking.
    Margaret Atwood  --  Oryx and Crake
    • tone = general feeling expressed
  • Although the tone of the journal, written in the third person in a stilted, self-consciousness voice, often veers toward melodrama, the available evidence indicates that McCandless did not misrepresent the facts; telling the truth was a credo he took seriously.
    Jon Krakauer  --  Into the Wild
    • tone = general feeling or mood
  • The fuzz changed his tone.
    S.E. Hinton  --  The Outsiders
    • tone = attitude
  • I was stunned at this suddenly serious tone she was using with me.
    John Corey Whaley  --  Nogin
tone = the general feeling, mood, or attitude of something

Dictionary / pronunciation — Google®Dictionary / more samples — Oxford® USDictionary list — Onelook.com®
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