halftone

plural halftones · alternative half-tone

1. entertainmentSynonym of semitone, half the interval between two notes on a scale.

   1 more example

   That animals utter musical notes is familiar to every one, as we may daily hear in the singing of birds. It is a more remarkable fact that an ape, one of the Gibbons, produces an exact octave of musical sounds, ascending and descending the scale by half-tones; so that this monkey “alone of brute mammals may be said to sing.”

   1872, Charles Darwin, “Means of Expression in Animals”, in The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals, London: John Murray, […], →OCLC, page 87

   Synonyms: semitone, half the interval between two notes on a scale

2. mediaA picture made by using the process of half-toning.

   Before leaving New York a handsome booklet had been prepared and printed. The brochure contained the names of the commissioners, their public records, halftone portraits and a carefully prepared statement of the objects of the expedition.

   1917, Joseph G. Butler Jr., A Journey Through France in War Time

3. artAn intermediate or middle tone in a painting, engraving, photograph, etc.; a middle tint, neither very dark nor very light.

   “No, I cannot enjoy it,” Cecilia said to Mrs. Devereux; “I don't mind the grey light; cloud and water, and half-tones of colour, are homely English and pleasant, and that opal where the sun should be has a suggestiveness richer than sunlight.[…]”

   1876, George Meredith, Beauchamp’s Career […], volume II, London: Chapman and Hall, […], →OCLC, page 18

present singular third person halftones · participle present halftoning · participle past halftoned · past halftoned · alternative half-tone

1. To reproduce a photograph or other continuous tone image by the use of dots of various sizes.