tonus

plural tonuses · plural toni

1. countableuncountablebiologytonicity; tone

   muscular tonus

   3 more examples

   The amount of stretch possible increases with the range in the joint and decreases with the cross section of the muscle and the amount of tonus or contraction in these antagonists .

   1942, Myrtle Gladys Scott, Analysis of Human Motion: A Textbook in Kinesiology, page 51

   Dr. H. S. Sullivan, for example, is known to many for his acute understanding of the postural tonuses of his patients.

   1956, Personal character and cultural milieu: a collection of readings

   At the same time, from the vasomotor point of view the artrioles are an extremely active part of the vascular bed , and every important change in the peripheral resistance is traceable to a corresponding change in the tonus of the arterioles .

   1964, Vasillĭ Vasilʹevich Parin, F. Z. Myerson, An Outline of the Clinical Physiology of the Circulation, page 210

2. countableuncountableA tonal system or mode used in Gregorian chant.

   Aurelian associates antiphons and toni of the plain chant, so that the octave-based Pythagorean scale is exemlified by means of the liturgical chant, with the outstanding consequence that church music becomes the sounding representation of the harmony of the spherese and of human beings.

   2021, Irene Caiazzo, Constantinos Macris, Aurélien Robert, Brill's Companion to the Reception of Pythagoras and Pythagoreanism in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, page 69