tritone

See also: Tritone

English

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) enPR: trī'tōn IPA^(key): /ˈtɹaɪˌtəʊ̯n/
• (General American) enPR: trī'tōn, IPA^(key): /ˈtɹaɪˌtoʊn/, [ˈt̠ɹ̠̊˔ʷaɪˌtʰoʊ̯n], [ˈt̠͡ʃɹ̠̊˔ʷäɪˌtʰoʊ̯n]

Etymology 1

Learned borrowing from Medieval Latin tritonus, itself borrowed from Ancient Greek τρίτονος (trítonos). By surface analysis, tri- +‎ tone.

Noun

tritone (plural tritones)

1. (music) An interval of three whole tones.

   Synonyms: devil's interval, diabolus in musica, diabolus

   Near-synonyms: augmented fourth, diminished fifth

   The tritone has a pitch ratio close to 17:12.

   • 2007 February 17, Ben Ratliff, “For Some Unmellowed Metalheads, Middle Age Is Nothing to Fear”, in New York Times‎^[1]:

     The mini-epic “Seasons in the Abyss,” with its ringing tritone interval at the beginning, its extended solos, its medium tempo, was as close as Slayer got to a groove.

Abbreviations

• TT

Derived terms

• semitritone

Translations

an interval of three whole tones

• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 三全音 (saam¹ cyun⁴ jam¹)

  Mandarin: 三全音 (sānquányīn)

• Czech: tritón m
• Finnish: tritonus (fi)
• French: triton (fr) m
• Galician: trítono (gl) m
• German: Tritonus (de) m
• Italian: tritono m
• Polish: tryton (pl) m
• Portuguese: trítono (pt) m
• Romanian: triton (ro) n
• Russian: трито́н (ru) m (tritón)
• Serbo-Croatian: triton (sh) m, tritonus (sh) m
• Spanish: trítono m

Etymology 2

From tri- +‎ tone.

Alternative forms

• tri-tone

Noun

tritone (plural tritones)

1. A picture printed in three shades.

   Coordinate terms: duotone, quadtone

   • 1995, Adele Droblas Greenberg, Seth Greenberg, “Converting from One Mode to Another”, in Fundamental Photoshop, 2nd edition, Osborne McGraw-Hill, →ISBN, page 380:

     In Photoshop’s Duotone mode you can create monotones, duotones, tritones, and quadtones—grayscale images to which you add one, two, three, or four colors.

   • 2003, Duncan Evans, “Duotones and Tritones”, in A Comprehensive Guide to Digital Portrait Photography, AVA Publishing SA, →ISBN, page 115:

     When using tritones or quadtones (in which three colours are blended together) all the secondary colours are mixed together.

   • 2010, David Präkel, “Duotone”, in The Visual Dictionary of Photography, AVA Publishing SA, →ISBN, page 97:

     The two colours need not be black and grey; computer duotones can be created from a greyscale original in any two colours; tritones use three inks and quadtones four.

Adjective

tritone (not comparable)

1. Having three tones.

   Synonym: tritoned

   • 1950 October 15, “Local Matrons Smartly Model Clothes Here At Event By Junior League”, in The Greenville News, volume LXXVI, number 288, Greenville, S.C., page two:

     The first cotume^[sic] in which Mrs. Earle appeared was a tritone dress of crepe, with a brown velour cloche and brown calf sling pumps.

   • 1963 May, “Thirty summer fashions”, in McCall’s, page 186:

     Fortrel-and-rayon-linen tritone dress, with drawstring waist.

   • 1979, “Killy Triple Gold Jackets”, in Christmas Wish Book, page 360:

     Tritone jacket has contrast nylon inserts. 80(Blue/Red/Wht.), 38(Beige/Navy/Red).

   • 2013, Alexandra Horowitz, “Minding Our Qs”, in On Looking: Eleven Walks with Expert Eyes, Scribner, →ISBN, pages 69–70:

     It is hard to believe that today’s signs may be tomorrow’s beloved ghosts, but sure as my 1970’s polyester tritone shirt and my plebeian 1964 Volvo are now “classics,” it will likely be so.

Italian

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /triˈto.ne/
• Rhymes: -one
• Hyphenation: tri‧tó‧ne

Noun

tritone m (plural tritoni)

1. newt, triton

Anagrams

• ritento, ritentò, tintore, tornite, trotine