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semitone

UK/ˈsɛmitoʊn/US/ˈsɛmitoʊn/
nounC1Very rare — outside the 30,000 commonest English words, so you will meet it in writing rather than in speech — tone sits at #1,710Too rare in one of the two pools to compare — fewer than 20 uses in speech or in writing

Other forms: semitones

A semitone is the smallest step between two neighbouring notes. Move up a semitone, a semitone apart, drop it a semitone.

On a piano it is any key to the very next key, black or white, which is the easiest way to see it. Twelve semitones make an octave, and the whole of Western music is built on that division.

Definitions of semitone

  1. 1nounsemitoneThe smallest step between two neighbouring notes.C1

    “Take the whole song down a semitone and he can reach the top note.”

semitone is an interval.

Where it comes from

  1. Proto-Indo-European

    *ten-

  2. Ancient Greek

    τόνος — strain, tension, pitch

  3. Old French

    ton

  4. Latin

    tonus — sound, tone

  5. Middle English

    ton

  6. English

    tone

  7. English, today

    semitone

Built from

  • τείνω · Ancient Greek — to stretch

From semi- + tone. tone comes from Middle English ton, tone, from Latin tonus (“sound, tone”) (possibly through Old French ton), from Ancient Greek τόνος (“strain, tension, pitch”), from τείνω (“to stretch”). a doublet of tune and ton and tonos and tonus.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in Music & Instruments

Practise this word

semitone in the wild

  • The smallest of these intervals is a semitone.

    Interval (music)

  • Intervals smaller than a semitone are called microtones.

    Interval (music)

  • In Western music theory, a semitone (also called a half step or half tone) is one of two parts into which a whole tone is divided.

    Semitone

  • A progression of semitones forms a chromatic scale, which informs the layout of many fixed-pitch instruments.

    Semitone

  • In music theory, a minor third is a musical interval that encompasses three half steps, or semitones.

    Minor third

1 / 3

From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

Related words

the tonus family

tone

semitone — used too rare to measure · point at the bar for the others

  • overtone