monotony

English

Etymology

From the post-Classical Latin monotonia and its etymon the Ancient Greek μονοτονία (monotonia, “sameness of tone”, “monotony”); compare the French monotonie and the Italian monotonia, as well as the later English monotone.

Pronunciation

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Noun

monotony (plural monotonies)

1. Tedium as a result of repetition or a lack of variety.
   • (Can we date this quote?) Arthur Conan Doyle, chapter 1, Through the Magic Door^[1]:

     Yet second-hand romance and second-hand emotion are surely better than the dull, soul-killing monotony which life brings to most of the human race.

2. (mathematics) The property of a monotonic function.
3. The quality of having an unvarying tone or pitch.

Derived terms

• monotone
• monotonous

Translations

tedium

• Catalan: monotonia (ca) f
• Danish: monotoni (da)
• German: Eintönigkeit (de) f, Monotonie (de) f

• Greenlandic: assigiiaamik periaaseqarneq (kl)
• Romanian: monotonie (ro)
• Spanish: monotonía (es) f

property of mathematical function

• German: Monotonie (de) f
• Icelandic: einhalli (is) m

• Romanian: monotonie (ro)

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Help:How to check translations.

Translations to be checked

• Dutch: eentonigheid (nl) f