Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- adjective Sounded or spoken in an unvarying tone.
- adjective Tediously repetitious or lacking in variety. synonym: boring.
from The Century Dictionary.
- Characterized by monotony; continued in the same tone without inflection or cadence; unvaried in tone.
- Unvarying in any respect; tiresomely uniform.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- adjective Uttered in one unvarying tone; continued with dull uniformity; characterized by monotony; without change or variety; wearisome.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adjective having an unvarying
tone orpitch - adjective
tedious ,repetitious or lacking invariety
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- adjective tediously repetitious or lacking in variety
- adjective sounded or spoken in a tone unvarying in pitch
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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This man says the city is much cooler in summer than the country: that spring visits the city earlier: that what we call the monotonous row of houses in a city street is far more beautiful than the irregularity of the country.
Robert Browning: How to Know Him William Lyon Phelps 1904
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If we could only carry that clear conviction with us day by day into the little things of life, what different things these, which we call the monotonous trifles of our daily duties, would become!
Expositions of Holy Scripture Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, Ruth, and First Book of Samuel, Second Samuel, First Kings, and Second Kings chapters I to VII Alexander Maclaren 1868
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Chopin he has the courage to write: "Had Professor Niecks applied the term monotonous to No. 12 we should have been more ready to indorse his opinion, as, although great power is manifested, the very 'sameness' of the form of the arpeggio figure causes a certain amount of monotony to be felt.
Chopin : the Man and His Music James Huneker 1890
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The thin monotonous wail that convulsed her scrawny frame drove her mother, Esperance, to desperation.
World Vision: Malnutrition Starves Children, Economies of a Lifetime of Potential World Vision 2010
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The thin monotonous wail that convulsed her scrawny frame drove her mother, Esperance, to desperation.
World Vision: Malnutrition Starves Children, Economies of a Lifetime of Potential World Vision 2010
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The thin monotonous wail that convulsed her scrawny frame drove her mother, Esperance, to desperation.
World Vision: Malnutrition Starves Children, Economies of a Lifetime of Potential World Vision 2010
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The thin monotonous wail that convulsed her scrawny frame drove her mother, Esperance, to desperation.
World Vision: Malnutrition Starves Children, Economies of a Lifetime of Potential World Vision 2010
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If you don't like the word monotonous, I'll say dull and stupid.
The Peril Finders George Manville Fenn 1870
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Anyone who has ever spent an afternoon mowing lawns knows the downsides of the job: walking in monotonous straight lines with the filthy emissions of a two-stroke engine in their face, and a subway’s worth of noise to contend with.
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According to Brande, it’s quite normal for our “genius” to assert itself when we’re involved in monotonous, repetitive tasks.
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