Overtone

Overtone
Overtone O"ver*tone`, n. [A translation of G. oberton. See {Over}, {Tone}.] (Mus.) One of the harmonics faintly heard with and at a higher frequency than a fundamental tone as it dies away, produced by some aliquot portion of the vibrating sting or column of air which yields the fundamental tone; one of the natural harmonic scale of tones, as the octave, twelfth, fifteenth, etc.; an aliquot or ``partial'' tone; a harmonic. See {Harmonic}, and {Tone}. --Tyndall. [1913 Webster]

The Collaborative International Dictionary of English. 2000.

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  • overtone — overtone, undertone Both words denote an extra layer of meaning or significance seen in a word or statement. An overtone, which is also commonly used in the plural overtones, suggests subtle additional meaning (and corresponds roughly to the… …   Modern English usage

  • overtone — index implication (inference), innuendo, intimation, suggestion Burton s Legal Thesaurus. William C. Burton. 2006 …   Law dictionary

  • overtone — (n.) 1867, in literal sense, from OVER (Cf. over) + TONE (Cf. tone) (n.); a loan translation of Ger. Oberton, first used by German physicist Hermann Ludwig Ferdinand von Helmholtz (1821 1894) as a contraction of Overpartialton upper partial tone …   Etymology dictionary

  • overtone — [n] implication, hint association, connotation, flavor, inference, innuendo, intimation, meaning, nuance, sense, suggestion, tone, undercurrent, undertone; concept 278 …   New thesaurus

  • overtone — ► NOUN 1) a musical tone which is a part of the harmonic series above a fundamental note, and may be heard with it. 2) a subtle or subsidiary quality, implication, or connotation …   English terms dictionary

  • overtone — [ō′vər tōn΄] n. [transl. of Ger oberton, contr. < oberpartialton, upper partial tone] 1. Acoustics Music any of the attendant higher tones heard with a fundamental tone produced by the vibration of a given string or column of air, having a… …   English World dictionary

  • Overtone — Overtones redirects here. For other uses, see Overtones (disambiguation). An overtone is any frequency higher than the fundamental frequency of a sound. The fundamental and the overtones together are called partials. Harmonics are partials whose… …   Wikipedia

  • overtone — UK [ˈəʊvə(r)ˌtəʊn] / US [ˈoʊvərˌtoʊn] noun [countable] Word forms overtone : singular overtone plural overtones a quality or feature that is noticeable but not obvious a book with political overtones …   English dictionary

  • overtone — noun ADJECTIVE ▪ strong ▪ a play with strong religious overtones ▪ serious ▪ negative ▪ The word ‘cheap’ has negative overtones …   Collocations dictionary

  • overtone — virštonis statusas T sritis fizika atitikmenys: angl. higher harmonic; overtone vok. Oberton, m rus. обертон, m pranc. note harmonique, f; son harmonique, m …   Fizikos terminų žodynas

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