TIMBRE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does timbre mean? 

• TIMBRE (noun)
  The noun TIMBRE has 1 sense:

1. (music) the distinctive property of a complex sound (a voice or noise or musical sound)

  Familiarity information: TIMBRE used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• TIMBRE (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

(music) the distinctive property of a complex sound (a voice or noise or musical sound)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Synonyms:

quality; timber; timbre; tone

Context example:

the muffled tones of the broken bell summoned them to meet

Hypernyms ("timbre" is a kind of...):

sound property (an attribute of sound)

Domain category:

music (an artistic form of auditory communication incorporating instrumental or vocal tones in a structured and continuous manner)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "timbre"):

harmonic (any of a series of musical tones whose frequencies are integral multiples of the frequency of a fundamental)

resonance (the quality imparted to voiced speech sounds by the action of the resonating chambers of the throat and mouth and nasal cavities)

color; coloration; colour; colouration (the timbre of a musical sound)

nasality (a quality of the voice that is produced by nasal resonators)

plangency; resonance; reverberance; ringing; sonority; sonorousness; vibrancy (having the character of a loud deep sound; the quality of being resonant)

shrillness; stridence; stridency (having the timbre of a loud high-pitched sound)

register ((music) the timbre that is characteristic of a certain range and manner of production of the human voice or of different pipe organ stops or of different musical instruments)