TONE
Acoustics / Psychoacoustics / Music A single sound of definite, recognizable PITCH. It also refers to the SONORITY or the quality of TIMBRE of a particular sound or sounding instrument (e.g. "the tone of the cello"). In British musical usage the word is also employed to refer to the INTERVAL of a major SECOND.
In ACOUSTICS, the word is usually understood to mean a specific kind of sound with a FUNDAMENTAL plus (except in the case of a SINE TONE) its PARTIALs.
See: BEATS, COMBINATION TONES, COMPLEX TONE, SIMPLE TONE. Compare: CLICK, DRONE, HUM, NOTE, OVERTONE.
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