Meanings
plural tones of voice
- The quality, manner, or way someone speaks.
HAL: Go ahead. JOHN: Wait a minute. That tone of voice… you don’t like it!
2004 March, Hal Helms, “Adventures in Encapsulation; Part 2: Talking OO: Learning to think in ‘objects’”, in Robert Diamond, editor, ColdFusion Developer’s Journal, volume 6, number 3, Montvale, N.J.: SYS-CON Publications, →ISSN, →OCLC, pages 24–251 more example
Something in John's tone of voice was coming back to haunt me, and at that moment I realized I'd been had.
2011, Hartley Pool, Stranger in TaiwanSynonyms: intonation, tone
Synonyms & antonyms
nounThe quality, manner, or way someone speaks.
More synonyms by meaning
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Translations
Chinese Mandarin 語調 /语调, 語氣 /语气
- 語調 /语调 (yǔdiào)way someone speaks
- 語氣 /语气 (yǔqì)way someone speaks
- 聲調 /声调 (shēngdiào)way someone speaks
- 腔調 /腔调 (qiāngdiào)way someone speaks
Finnish äänensävy
- äänensävyway someone speaks
Swedish tonfall
- tonfallway someone speaks
Cite this entry
tone of voice. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/tone%20of%20voice
“tone of voice.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/tone%20of%20voice. Accessed November 5, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “tone of voice,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/tone%20of%20voice.
Source: tone of voice on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.