[Elamur Dictionary](https://md.dictionary.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://dictionary.elamur.ai/free/en/english/tonal/)

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# tonal

adjective (tonal)

«tonal» in the English dictionary: everyday — its meanings, how the lessons use it, and examples, each with its tree on Mova.

## Everyday

1. Tonal means to do with tone: the sound, pitch or quality of something. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/T/tonal/#m1)
2. A tonal language uses the rise and fall of the voice to change the meaning of a word, like Mandarin Chinese. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/T/tonal/#m2)
3. In art, tonal means to do with light and dark shades of a colour. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/T/tonal/#m3)

### In the lessons

In music lessons it is about pitch and keys; in art lessons about shading from light to dark; in languages it explains why in Mandarin "ma" can mean mother or horse depending on the tone. Phrases: tonal language, tonal range, tonal shading.

### Examples

- Mandarin is a tonal language with four main tones. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/T/tonal/#x1)
- In art we did tonal shading with a pencil, from dark to light. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/T/tonal/#x2)
- The piano has a warm tonal quality. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/T/tonal/#x3)
- English is not a tonal language, though our voice rises in questions. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/T/tonal/#x4)
- Make a tonal scale with five boxes. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/T/tonal/#x5)
- The singer's tonal range is wide. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/T/tonal/#x6)

### Note

Adjective only; noun: tone, tonality. Trap: tonal (about tone) is not the same as total (all added together).

## On Mova

- [Trees and pragmatics of «tonal» in the school dictionary](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/T/tonal/): every meaning and example parsed by Mova, with its dependency tree and frames.
- [«tonal» in the school dictionary](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/dictionaries/school/w/tonal.html) on Mova free.