Intonate

/ˈɪntəʊneɪt/ · verb

Meaning

(transitive, intransitive, dated) To intone or recite (words), especially emphatically or in a chanting manner..

Definitions by Sense

1. (transitive, intransitive, dated) To intone or recite (words), especially emphatically or in a chanting manner.
2. (transitive, dated) To say or speak with a certain intonation.
3. (transitive, dated) To intone or vocalize (musical notes); to sound the tones of the musical scale; to practise the sol-fa.
4. (obsolete) To thunder or to utter in a sonorous or thunderous voice.

Example Sentences

[…] we have no doubt whatever that the recitation of verse on the stage was of an artificial and semi-musical character. It was undoubtedly much more sustained and intonated with a slow and measured stateliness, which, whilst harmonizing it with the other circumstances of solemnity in Greek tragedy, would bring it nearer to music.

His manner on the platform and his speech were those of a drony, sing-song, intonating Episcopal minister, devoid of life and spirit.

With actorlike polish he intonated through the third page […]

“Is this Mr. O’Connor’s chamber?” inquired a voice of peculiar richness, intonated not unpleasingly with a certain melodious modification of the brogue […]

Miss Bremer talked plentifully in her strange manner—good English enough for a foreigner, but so oddly intonated and accented, that it is impossible to be sure of more than one word in ten.

[…] an older man, attired in gray, with hair to match, was busily engaged at one end of the room packing a quantity of small cases into a larger one, and continuing to hold converse with himself by means of the monosyllable “yes,” differently intonated, at intervals of half-a-minute, “y-e-s—y-e-s.”

[…] another child of foreign parentage intonates his English with the cadence peculiar to the language of his parents.

1844, The order for morning and evening prayer, and the Litany : with plain-tune, according to the use of the United Church of England and Ireland, London: J. Burns,Editor’s Preface, A comma or colon was intonated by the fall of a minor third from the key-note on the ultimate or penultimate and ultimate syllables of the clause […]

Synonyms for intonate

Antonyms for intonate

Related Words

Word Forms

• intonates
• intonating
• intonated

Usage Notes

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