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Glite Dictionary
🗣️ Unchanging voice 🗣️ Unvaried sound 📈 Always rising or falling
monotone

monotone

2 5.8
Said or sung in the same tone without change
  • adjective
  • /ˈmɒnəˌtoʊn/
translation icon : monótono
  • When forced to read, their readings tend to be halting and monotone if they are even audible.
  • monotone voice
  • almost monotone

And so if you're a monotone person, then that's that, right?

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Examples

  • Even if your slides aren't the best, your delivery is a bit monotone, or your movement is a bit stiff.

    Blog text (34)

  • And so if you're a monotone person, then that's that, right?

    GaryVee

  • His voice is so monotone that there is no way to read whether he actually wants me to or is just being polite.

    Fiction book (2000)

  • Deliver their lecture in a monotone manner.

    Academic text (2007)

  • One of my top comments that I get is that I have a boring monotone voice with no inflection in it.

  • She took another breath and continued, her voice quietly deliberate, almost monotone.

    Fiction book (1994)

  • The instrumentation combined with Del Rey's strained, almost monotone, vocals descends together into a kind of quiet 1950s madness.

    Blog text (21)

  • During the lecture, the professor spoke in a monotone voice that made it hard for the students to stay awake.

  • Her monotone delivery of the poem lacked any emotional depth, making it less impactful.

  • He tended to answer questions in a monotone manner, which often led others to think he was not interested.

Synonyms

flat
vsmonotone
297 4.4

Not lively and often weak in taste or sound

is narrower, applying to pure pitch sameness rather than general dullness
monotonous
vsmonotone
4 5.3

A voice or sound that stays on one tone and does not change

is only about steady pitch rather than repetitive dullness
toneless
vsmonotone
1 6.3

A flat voice that shows no emotion

focuses on pitch sameness not the added lack of feeling
monotonic
vsmonotone
1 8.1

A voice that keeps the same pitch and tone

is about constant pitch specifically, not broader dullness
monotonal
vsmonotone
7.3

A voice or sound that stays in the same pitch without change

focuses on pitch sameness rather than implying boredom
inflectionless
vsmonotone
7.9

Said in a flat, boring voice with no rise or fall

highlights mere lack of pitch change rather than emotional dullness

Antonyms

varied
54 3.3

Containing many different kinds, not all the same

How Varied

melodic
18 3.9
expressive
41 3.4
monotone
2 5.8

Surface Forms

monotone positive
monotoner comparative
monotonest superlative

Morphology

monotone = tone (transparent) = mono + tone

The word is transparently formed from mono- 'one' plus tone, describing speech or sound with a single unvarying pitch.

Etymology

Monotone as an adjective has the same roots mono- 'one' and tone 'pitch' or 'sound'. So when we call a voice monotone, we mean it stays at a single pitch and does not change.