Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun Body or muscular tone; tonicity.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A condition of preparedness in an organ or tissue to perform its normal function as soon as the customary stimulus is applied.
  • noun Tonicity.
  • noun Tonic spasm.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Physiol.) Tonicity, or tone.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun biology tonicity; tone

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun the elastic tension of living muscles, arteries, etc. that facilitate response to stimuli

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Latin, tone; see tone.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Latin a sound, tone. See tone.

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Examples

  • This tonus is influenced by the stimulation of the vestibular apparatus in the regular manner already indicated.

    Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1914 - Presentation 1967

  • In the frog's tongue, capillary tonus is very strongly developed, in that by far the majority are completely contracted.

    August Krogh - Nobel Lecture 1967

  • If one performs the same experiment with the tongue, many hours must elapse before a similar reaction occurs, and even the slightest blood supply is adequate to maintain tonus.

    August Krogh - Nobel Lecture 1967

  • William Cullen (1712-90) accepting irritability as his starting-point, supposes a "tonus" or fluid inherent in the nerves (Newton's ether), whose stronger or weaker motions produce either a spasm or atony.

    The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume 10: Mass Music-Newman 1840-1916 1913

  • a centre for the tonus which is directed against the sagittal axis of the body, i.e. «inwards» and also a centre for the tonus away from this axis, i.e. «outwards».

    Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1914 - Presentation 1967

  • In the traditional Roman Rite, this Psalm was sung each Sunday night at Vespers, and it has a special tone that is normally reserved for it alone: the tonus peregrinus, or "pilgrim tone," music well suited to this Psalm of the wandering of God's People in their search for the Holy Land.

    Archive 2006-08-01 bls 2006

  • The synagogue gave to the Early Christian church some of its ancient melodies; the recitation formula of the psalm B'tset Yisrael "When Israel went forth out of Egypt", for example, survives in the Gregorian chant repertoire as the tonus peregrinus.

    Archive 2006-08-01 bls 2006

  • Au bout de 5 ou dix minutes d'attente interminable, je recupere un peu de tonus musculaire mais je suis affreusement crevé.

    pinku-tk Diary Entry pinku-tk 2006

  • The synagogue gave to the Early Christian church some of its ancient melodies; the recitation formula of the psalm B'tset Yisrael "When Israel went forth out of Egypt", for example, survives in the Gregorian chant repertoire as the tonus peregrinus.

    Tonus Peregrinus bls 2006

  • In the traditional Roman Rite, this Psalm was sung each Sunday night at Vespers, and it has a special tone that is normally reserved for it alone: the tonus peregrinus, or "pilgrim tone," music well suited to this Psalm of the wandering of God's People in their search for the Holy Land.

    Tonus Peregrinus bls 2006

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