tone terracing

noun

A form of downdrift in which the high or mid tones, but not the low tone, shift downward in pitch after certain other tones. The result is that a tone may be realized at a certain pitch over a short stretch of speech, shifts downward and then continues at its new level, then shifts downward again, until the end of the prosodic contour is reached, at which point the pitch resets.

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Meanings

nountone terracing (uncountable)
  1. uncountablehuman sciencesA form of downdrift in which the high or mid tones, but not the low tone, shift downward in pitch after certain other tones. The result is that a tone may be realized at a certain pitch over a short stretch of speech, shifts downward and then continues at its new level, then shifts downward again, until the end of the prosodic contour is reached, at which point the pitch resets.

Origin

A graph of the change in pitch over time of a particular tone resembles a terrace.

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Cite this entry
APA

tone terracing. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/tone%20terracing

MLA

“tone terracing.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/tone%20terracing. Accessed November 4, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “tone terracing,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/tone%20terracing.

Source: tone terracing on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.