toneless

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
tone/təʊn/

▶noun

• 1 a musical or vocal sound with reference to its pitch, quality, and strength.

  ■ a musical note, warble, or other sound used as a signal on a telephone or answering machine.

• 2 a modulation of the voice expressing a feeling or mood.

• 3 general character: trust her to lower the tone of the conversation.

• 4 (also whole tone) a basic interval in classical Western music, equal to two semitones and separating, for example, the first and second notes of an ordinary scale; a major second.

• 5 the particular quality of brightness, deepness, or hue of a colour.

  ■ the general effect of colour or of light and shade in a picture.

• 6 Phonetics (in some languages, such as Chinese) a particular pitch pattern on a syllable used to make semantic distinctions.

  ■ (in some languages, such as English) intonation on a word or phrase used to add functional meaning.

• 7 (also muscle tone) the normal level of firmness or slight contraction in a resting muscle.

▶verb

• 1 (often tone something up) give greater strength or firmness to (the body or a muscle).

• 2 (tone something down) make something less harsh in colour.

  ■ make something less extreme.

• 3 (tone with) harmonize with in terms of colour.

• 4 Photography give (a monochrome picture) an altered colour in finishing by means of a chemical solution.

– derivatives
-toned adjective,
toneless adjective,
tonelessly adverb.

– origin ME: from OFr. ton, from L. tonus, from Gk tonos ‘tension, tone’, from teinein ‘to stretch’.