| Learning / English Dictionary |
TIMBRE
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
(music) the distinctive property of a complex sound (a voice or noise or musical sound)
Example:
the muffled tones of the broken bell summoned them to meet
Synonyms:
Classified under:
Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects
Hypernyms ("timbre" is a kind of...):
sound property (an attribute of sound)
Domain category:
music (an artistic form of auditory communication incorporating instrumental or vocal tones in a structured and continuous manner)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "timbre"):
harmonic (any of a series of musical tones whose frequencies are integral multiples of the frequency of a fundamental)
resonance (the quality imparted to voiced speech sounds by the action of the resonating chambers of the throat and mouth and nasal cavities)
color; coloration; colour; colouration (the timbre of a musical sound)
nasality (a quality of the voice that is produced by nasal resonators)
plangency; resonance; reverberance; ringing; sonority; sonorousness; vibrancy (having the character of a loud deep sound; the quality of being resonant)
shrillness; stridence; stridency (having the timbre of a loud high-pitched sound)
register ((music) the timbre that is characteristic of a certain range and manner of production of the human voice or of different pipe organ stops or of different musical instruments)
