tone of voice

Noun

Meaning

tone of voice (plural tones of voice)

The quality, manner or way an individual speaks.
You could tell by his tone of voice that he was uncomfortable.

Synonyms

Hypernyms

Hyponyms

Examples

Dance with a girl three times, and if you like the light of her eye and the tone of voice with which she, breathless, answers your little questions about horseflesh and music about affairs masculine and feminine, then take the leap in the dark. Anthony Trollope

We often refuse to accept an idea merely because the tone of voice in which it has been expressed is unsympathetic to us. Friedrich Nietzsche

[W]e would probably claim Kafka as an Irish writer. His tone of voice is certainly quite Irish: that sense of melancholy, that sense of strangeness and of being a stranger in the world. I think that we empathise with that very much indeed. John Banville

He understood the tone of voice instinctively, as he always had; it was his greatest gift, to know emotions even better than the person feeling them. Orson Scott Card

I am not complaining, mind you,” the simurgh was saying in a grumpy, peevish tone of voice a while later, "I was merely pointing out that when one must tamper with the forces of nature, it is better to err on the side of caution and of prudence, than to be too liberal. Lin Carter

God does not play games with His loyal servants", said the Metatron, but in a worried tone of voice. "Whoopee", said Crowley. Terry Pratchett

Close letter words and terms