Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The quality or state of being toneless; lack of tone, in any sense.

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

  • noun The state or condition of being toneless.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

toneless +‎ -ness

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Examples

  • "Oh," she said, with all the tonelessness of disinterest, and went on with her stitching.

    CHAPTER XVI 2010

  • His voice had the tonelessness of a surgeon's asking for another scalpel.

    Quiller Meridian Hall, Adam 1993

  • Mamie McInnes played while Barney Car and her husband, Jerry, sang with good-natured tonelessness.

    The Legacy of Heorot Niven, Larry 1987

  • The tonelessness in her voice belied the tears in her eyes.

    The Way to Dusty Death MacLean, Alistair, 1922- 1973

  • The hostility was gone from his voice; nothing remained but an even tonelessness.

    Ralestone Luck Andre Norton 1958

  • The hostility was gone from his voice; nothing remained but an even tonelessness.

    Ralestone Luck Norton, Andre 1938

  • His defective ear would never allow him to catch the trick of the accent — he would always speak with the tonelessness of the foreigner — but his vocabulary was widening and his grammar growing more certain and he was acquiring a fluency in the idiom which more than once earned him a pretty compliment from his host.

    Flying Colours Forester, C. S. 1938

  • In spite of herself, the dead tonelessness of the man's voice aroused her to sudden pity.

    Prairie Flowers 1921

  • The calm assurance of the man fanned her rising anger, and, when she answered, her voice was low and steady, with the tonelessness of forced control.

    The Gun-Brand 1921

  • For the first time in all the afternoon, his voice lost its tonelessness, and rang out with the resonance of sincerity.

    The Bent Twig Dorothy Canfield Fisher 1918

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