toneless

English

Etymology

tone +‎ -less

Adjective

toneless (comparative more toneless, superlative most toneless)

1. Lacking tone or expression.
   • 1928, Radclyffe Hall, The Well of Loneliness‎^[1], Garden City, NY: Blue Ribbon Books, Book 1, Chapter 7, Section 2, p. 71:

     And sure enough she had settled down at once, so that in less than two months it seemed to Stephen that Miss Puddleton must always have been at Morton, must always have been sitting at the large walnut table, must always have been saying in that dry, toneless voice with the Oxford accent: ‘You’ve forgotten something, Stephen,’ […]

   • 1941, Emily Carr, chapter 4, in Klee Wyck‎^[2]:

     The Cumshewa totem poles were dark and colourless, the wood toneless from pouring rain.

2. Lacking vitality; listless.
3. (linguistics) Lacking tone or pitch, have the neutral tone.

Derived terms

• tonelessly

Translations

lacking tone or expression

• Bulgarian: глух (bg) (gluh), неизразителен (bg) (neizrazitelen)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 單調的／单调的 (zh) (dāndiào de)

• Finnish: soinniton (fi), sävytön (fi)
• Russian: невырази́тельный (ru) (nevyrazítelʹnyj)

lacking vitality; listless

• Finnish: eloton (fi)
• Russian: вя́лый (ru) (vjályj)

having no tone (in tonal languages)

• Bulgarian: беззвучен (bg) (bezzvučen)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 缺乏聲調的／缺乏声调的 (quēfá shēngdiào de)

• Finnish: tooniton

Anagrams

• noteless