tonal

comparative more tonal · superlative most tonal

1. Of or relating to tones or tonality.

   Songs for the family-table on Sabbaths and holidays—songs which give those various holy days tonal expression and which aim to spiritualize the meals.

   1929, Abraham Zevi Idelsohn, Jewish Music: Its Historical Development, page 358

2. Of or relating to the general character, mood, or trend of something.

   The lurid way the story played out felt like a tonal shift for Empire, but not necessarily a bad one—in the process of shedding its cool costume-drama attitude for grotesque family dysfunction, the episode felt for once less like a story about Prohibition and more one about a specific set of people.

   2011 December 5, James Poniewozik, “Boardwalk Empire Watch: Mother, May I Sleep With Danger?”, in Time, archived from the original on 27 Dec 2019

3. entertainmentEmploying tones that have a predictable relationship to some tonic.
4. human sciencesEmploying differences in pitch (tones) to distinguish differences in the meaning of otherwise similar words (words which would otherwise be homophonic).

plural tonals · alternative tona

1. An animal companion which accompanies a person from birth to death.

   When a tonal suffers misfortune or death, the same thing happens to the person associated with it.

   1989, Robert Bartley Taylor, Indians of Middle America: an introduction to the ethnology of Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean, page 122