Tritone
adj, noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 An interval of three whole tones.
"Near-synonyms: augmented fourth, diminished fifth"
- 2 A picture printed in three shades.
"In Photoshop’s Duotone mode you can create monotones, duotones, tritones, and quadtones—grayscale images to which you add one, two, three, or four colors."
- 1 Having three tones. not-comparable
"The first cotume^([sic]) in which Mrs. Earle appeared was a tritone dress of crepe, with a brown velour cloche and brown calf sling pumps."
Example
More examples"Jazz musicians often like to use tritone substitutions."
Etymology
Learned borrowing from Medieval Latin tritonus, itself borrowed from Ancient Greek τρίτονος (trítonos). By surface analysis, tri- + tone.
From tri- + tone.
Related phrases
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.