tonality.

1. The organization of musical tones around a central pitch or key.

2. The overall relation of color and light-dark values in an image.

3. The characteristic tonal color or range of a voice or instrument.

Use it for

Words that belong together

• major tonality
• musical tonality

On the page

The passage briefly unsettles the established tonality.

Usage notes

Primary category: sensory / description. Forms: Usually uncountable; no ordinary plural in this sense. Legacy lexical fields mirror sense 1 only. Use numbered sense fields for all meanings. Established modern English lexical item. No separate regional spelling or grammatical inflection entry. Writing functions: description. Commonness: moderately common.