adj, noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   A sound with lack of tone or vocality. dated

Adjective

1. 1
   unstressed unstressed
2. 2
   not having tone (pitch)

   "Some syllables are distinguished by an absence of tone; they are said to be atonic or to have a neutral tone."

3. 3
   Lacking muscle tone.
4. 4
   Characterized by atony, or want of vital energy.

   "an atonic disease"

Adjective

1. 1
   (used of syllables) carrying no stress wordnet
2. 2
   characterized by a lack of tonus wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms

unaccented

Antonyms

All antonyms

tonic

Example

More examples

"Some syllables are distinguished by an absence of tone; they are said to be atonic or to have a neutral tone."

Etymology

From a- + tonic.

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.