tritone
/ˈtɹaɪˌtoʊn/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 1.82 in modern English
7
Scrabble Score
7
Letters
2
Syllables
6
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
An interval of three whole tones.
Example Sentences
- "Near-synonyms: augmented fourth, diminished fifth"
- "The tritone has a pitch ratio close to 17:12."
- "The mini-epic “Seasons in the Abyss,” with its ringing tritone interval at the beginning, its extended solos, its medium tempo, was as close as Slayer got to a groove."
- "In Photoshop’s Duotone mode you can create monotones, duotones, tritones, and quadtones—grayscale images to which you add one, two, three, or four colors."
- "When using tritones or quadtones (in which three colours are blended together) all the secondary colours are mixed together."
- "The two colours need not be black and grey; computer duotones can be created from a greyscale original in any two colours; tritones use three inks and quadtones four."
Etymology
Learned borrowing from Medieval Latin tritonus, itself borrowed from Ancient Greek τρίτονος (trítonos). By surface analysis, tri- + tone.
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: τρίτονος
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈtɹaɪˌtoʊn/
- British English: /ˈtɹaɪˌtəʊ̯n/
Inflected Forms
Derived Forms
Phrases
devil's chord
Frequently Paired Words
Synonyms
devil's interval
devil in music
diabolus in musica
diabolus
augmented fourth
diminished fifth
tritoned