Dictionary

monotone

Pronunciation

Adjective

monotone

(of speech or a sound) Having a single unvaried pitch.
- 1940, Asiatic Society (Calcutta, Royal Asiatic Society of Bengal, India), Journal of the Asiatic Society, page 95:
  The prominence of the syllables is more monotone than in English, the intonation of the latter having a larger variation of stressed and unstressed syllables.
- 1998, Roger W. Shuy, Bureaucratic Language in Government and Business, Georgetown University Press, Research on Telephone vs. In-Person Administrative Hearings, page 76:
  In the formal register, such variation is reduced and the talk has a more monotone, business-like quality.
(mathematics) Being, or having the salient properties of, a monotone function.
The function f(x):=x^3 is monotone on \R, while g(x):=x^2 is not.

Translations

Noun

monotone

A single unvaried tone of speech or a sound.
When Tima felt like her parents were treating her like a servant, she would speak in monotone and act as though she were a robot.
- 1799, John Walker, Elements of Elocution, Cooper and Wilson, page 309:
  It is no very difficult matter to be loud in a high tone of voice; but to be loud and forcible in a low tone, requires great practice and management; this, however, may be facilitated by pronouncing forcibly at firſt in a low monotone; a monotone, though in a low key, and without force, is much more ſonorous and audible than when the voice ſlides up and down at almoſt every word, as it muſt do to be various.
A piece of writing in one strain throughout.

Verb

monotone (monotones, present participle monotoning; past and past participle monotoned)

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