Tone-deaf
"Tone-deaf" in a Sentence (10 examples)
I don't want to sing, because I'm tone-deaf.
I'm tone-deaf.
Tom isn't tone-deaf, is he?
Tom is tone-deaf, so he rarely sings in front of others.
Although he was tone-deaf, he was a great lyricist.
This is a distinction unavailable to the tone-deaf.
a politician's tone-deaf remarks about the price of bread
The elected official's tone-deaf remarks about the operations of the clerk’s office were disappointing.
Otherwise, saying “N-word” is plenty accurate; I knew exactly what you meant. And arguing for your need to use an explosive term, when a common euphemism will do, makes you seem defensive and tone-deaf.
The campaign – which Fast Company described as “eyebrow-raising”, “controversial” and “tone-deaf” – did not land well.
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.