Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun An ulterior, usually implicit meaning or quality; an implication or a hint.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun In music, a harmonic. See
harmonic , n., 1.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun (Mus.) 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 , andtone .
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun physics, music A
tone whosefrequency is aninteger multiple of another; aharmonic - noun An
implicit meaning , as opposed to a hidden meaning orundertone .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun (usually plural) an ulterior implicit meaning or quality
- noun a harmonic with a frequency that is a multiple of the fundamental frequency
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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As such it gradually lost its pejorative overtone, so that both to Jews themselves and to sympathetic gentiles, it sometimes seemed preferable to 'Jew' as a racial term.
Archive 2010-01-01 Kylopod 2010
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As such it gradually lost its pejorative overtone, so that both to Jews themselves and to sympathetic gentiles, it sometimes seemed preferable to 'Jew' as a racial term.
Why ethnic labels matter Kylopod 2010
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The movie's unmistakable, though largely tacit theme is homosexuality in the full, unliberated postwar sense of the word - Matthew Parris said that its clenched pejorative overtone is traditionally conveyed with the long vowels fastidiously drawn out: hoa-moa-sexuality.
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The movie's unmistakable, though largely tacit theme is homosexuality in the full, unliberated postwar sense of the word - Matthew Parris said that its clenched pejorative overtone is traditionally conveyed with the long vowels fastidiously drawn out: hoa-moa-sexuality.
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Edit we can linguistically deconstruct “evolve” into “e” (out) and “volve” (roll or turn with a kind of overtone of fold).
Special Magazine Issues on Darwin, Evolution, ID Creationism - The Panda's Thumb 2005
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This word "overtone" is used unscientifically by many.
Expressive Voice Culture, Including the Emerson System Jessie Eldridge Southwick
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"We certainly are" came a voice from the shortest of the cabal members, with a kind of overtone of 'there's strength in numbers' - or was it 'the more the merrier'?
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Harmonics • An 'overtone' is a partial (a \ "partial wave\" or \ "constituent frequency\") that can be either a harmonic or an inharmonic.
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Though many on the ground in the struggle against the Shah were leftists and other secular democratic forces -- some of whom organized important strikes, demonstrations, and other actions independently from the religious hierarchy -- the religious overtone of the demonstrations was apparent in the slogans, communiqués, banners, graffiti, and other means throughout the 13-month struggle that led to the Shah's overthrow in February 1979.
Stephen Zunes: Why Egypt Will Not Turn Into Another Iran Stephen Zunes 2011
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Though many on the ground in the struggle against the Shah were leftists and other secular democratic forces -- some of whom organized important strikes, demonstrations, and other actions independently from the religious hierarchy -- the religious overtone of the demonstrations was apparent in the slogans, communiqués, banners, graffiti, and other means throughout the 13-month struggle that led to the Shah's overthrow in February 1979.
Stephen Zunes: Why Egypt Will Not Turn Into Another Iran Stephen Zunes 2011
MaryW commented on the word overtone
Daniel J. Levitin, This Is Your Brain on Music: The Science of a Human Obsession (New York: Penguin Random House, 2007), p. 46June 19, 2017