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timbre

Timbre is a word that describes the tone or unique quality of a sound. If you play the same note on a piano and on a guitar, each note will have its own timbre.

Though an electric saw has its own timbre, as does the sound of a tree whooshing through the air, don't confuse timbre with "Timber!" the word you shout when chopping down trees. Timbre comes from the Greek word that means drum. Timber stems from an Old English word for building materials.

DEFINITIONS OF: timbre

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

“the timbre of her soprano was rich and lovely”

Synonyms:: quality, timber, tone

Types:: show 10 types...; hide 10 types...; 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; nasal twang, twang
exaggerated nasality in speech (as in some regional dialects); head register, head tone, head voice
the higher ranges of the voice in speaking or singing; the vibrations of sung notes are felt in the head; chest register, chest tone, chest voice
the lower ranges of the voice in speaking or singing

Type of:: sound property
an attribute of sound

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