Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun In psychology, affective experience, as referred to the intellectual experience which it accompanies and colors; more especially, simple affection, as referred to the sensation which it thus accompanies, and of which, in some psychological systems, it is even regarded as an attribute; affective tone.

Etymologies

Sorry, no etymologies found.

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word feeling-tone.

Examples

  • Whatever the "feeling-tone" of this experience is, just note it attentively, without judgment; stay with it for a couple of breaths, and see if it shifts, or intensifies, or ebbs.

    Jay Michaelson: Eat Your Way To Enlightenment 2009

  • Pure sensations, according to Wundt, display three differentiae: quality, intensity, and “feeling-tone

    Wilhelm Maximilian Wundt Kim, Alan 2006

  • She was not in the dark room then, but poised at the edge of a brightness which seemed featureless and without limit, spread out around her with a feeling-tone like “sea” or “sky.”

    The Complete Federation Of The Hub Schmitz, James H. 2000

  • The agreeableness or disagreeableness, pleasantness or painfulness, which are the accompaniments of thoughts and emotions, have been called by modern psychologists their feeling-tone.

    A Handbook of Ethical Theory George Stuart Fullerton

  • There is communicated serenity as well as reverence in the stately, liturgical service, but that feeling-tone is dependent on the minister conducting it.

    Frank H. Nelson of Cincinnati Warren Crocker Herrick

  • And just as all the widened "somatic resonances" contribute to the primary feeling-tone increased strength and increased definiteness, so must the emotional state of an individual be enhanced by retroactive stimulation from the expressions by which the state has, so to say, been continued in others.

    Introduction to the Science of Sociology Robert Ezra Park 1926

  • This feeling-tone, however, is not as a rule an inherent value in the word itself; it is rather a sentimental growth on the word’s true body, on its conceptual kernel.

    Chapter 2. The Elements of Speech 1921

  • To be sure, there are socially accepted feeling-tones, or ranges of feeling-tone, for many words over and above the force of individual association, but they are exceedingly variable and elusive things at best.

    Chapter 2. The Elements of Speech 1921

  • Not only may the feeling-tone change from one age to another (this, of course, is true of the conceptual content as well), but it varies remarkably from individual to individual according to the personal associations of each, varies, indeed, from time to time in a single individual’s consciousness as his experiences mold him and his moods change.

    Chapter 2. The Elements of Speech 1921

  • What there is of truth in their contentions may be summed up, it seems to me, by saying that most words, like practically all elements of consciousness, have an associated feeling-tone, a mild, yet none the less real and at times insidiously powerful, derivative of pleasure or pain.

    Chapter 2. The Elements of Speech 1921

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.