overtone
NounUS[oh-ver-tohn]/ˈoʊvɚˌtoʊn/3 syllables
Open English WordNet
Noun (2)
- (usually plural) an ulterior implicit meaning or quality“overtones of despair”Type of meaning, significance
- a harmonic with a frequency that is a multiple of the fundamental frequencySynonyms: partialpartial toneType of harmonic
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inexorableadjective
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Webster's Dictionary (1913)
O′ver·tone′ noun
Origin: A translation of G. oberton. See Over, Tone.
Music One of the harmonics faintly heard with and at a higher frequency than a fundamental tone as it dies away, produced by some aliquot portion of the vibrating sting or column of air which yields the fundamental tone; one of the natural harmonic scale of tones, as the octave, twelfth, fifteenth, etc.; an aliquot or “partial” tone; a harmonic. See Harmonic, and Tone. Tyndall.
Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913), from GCIDE 0.54