demitone
/ˈdɛmɪtəʊn/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 0.00 in modern English
11
Scrabble Score
8
Letters
2
Syllables
7
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A semitone.
noun
A muted tone; a subdued manner of speaking.
noun
Something that is necessary to produce harmony and completeness.
Example Sentences
- "Before X-ray we used to talk glibly, and sometimes I suspect without justification, of differences of demitones and half demitones in percussion of the chest and slight enlargements of the heart."
- "I am somewhat annoyed to be obliged to transpose everything for this concert because of the G. Gaveau harpsichord, which is constructed a demitone too low."
- "If we play the two lines on a piano, it becomes clear after a few repetitions (that is, once a distinction between the acoustic shape and the background is established) that what we actually hear in the foreground is a succession of fragments made up of a repeating demitone (here, B C B C B C, etc.)."
- "I would speak to you, I have seen this opulence banishing by shades, by demitones!"
- "demitone short of the snapping point, makes her suffering sympathetic — admirable even, for its seems a triumph to function in the face of crippling nerves."
- "composed of demitones and shadings, while also being as faithful as possible to the many subtle gradations of his meanings and insinuations."
Etymology
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- British English: /ˈdɛmɪtəʊn/