tonal
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tonal¹
- /ˈtoʊnəl/ US
- /ˈtəʊnəl/ UK
Rhymes with -əʊnəl
Where it comes from
From tone + -al.
adjective more tonal · most tonal
- Of or relating to tones or tonality. Songs for the family-table on Sabbaths and holidays—songs which give those various holy days tonal expression and which aim to spiritualize the meals.
- Of or relating to the general character, mood, or trend of something. The lurid way the story played out felt like a tonal shift for Empire, but not necessarily a bad one—in the process of shedding its cool costume-drama attitude for grotesque family dysfunction, the episode felt for once less like a story about Prohibition and more one about a specific set of people.
- Employing tones that have a predictable relationship to some tonic.
- Employing differences in pitch (tones) to distinguish differences in the meaning of otherwise similar words (words which would otherwise be homophonic).
Opposite: atonal
tonal²
- /ˈtoʊnəl/ US
- /ˈtəʊnəl/ UK
Rhymes with -əʊnəl
Where it comes from
From Nahuatl tōnalli (“day, day sign”).
noun tonals · tona
- An animal companion which accompanies a person from birth to death. When a tonal suffers misfortune or death, the same thing happens to the person associated with it.
Thesaurus
Closest in meaning: toned, polytonal, diatonic, tonic, keyed, tone, musical, harmonic, melodic, pitched, intonational, sonorous, aural, acoustic, auditory, sonic
adjective
Opposite: atonal
Translations
Talk about this word "tonal." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/tonal. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026. tonal. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/tonal "tonal." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/tonal.Cite this
@misc{tonal_2026,
title = {tonal},
howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
year = {2026},
url = {https://micwyn.com/word/tonal},
urldate = {2026-11-06}
}
