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tönen

German, verb

tönen is spelled T-Ö-N-E-N (5 letters) and appears 4.5 times per million words in written German, the 13,339th most frequent German word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). Tönen is a German verb meaning “to give a loud and far-reaching sound” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). On this page, Tonen is a different word: “dative plural of Ton”. With a capital, Tönen is a different word: “gerund of tönen”. The German Wiktionary defines it as “hörbar sein”.

What does tönen mean in English?

verb

  1. 1

    to give a loud and far-reaching sound

    Die Kirchglocken tönten durch die Gassen.

  2. 2

    Switzerlandto sound; to give or have a sound

    Diese beiden Wörter tönen ähnlich.

  3. 3

    informalto boast; to brag (particularly about an intention to do something)

    Vor dem Spiel hatte der Gegner getönt, er würde uns „vernichten“.

  4. 4

    to dye with a weak colouring that gives the hair a new tone rather than an entirely different colour; to tint

    Sie hatte ihre Haare mit Henna getönt.

noun

as Tonen
  1. 1

    masculinedative plural of Ton

noun

as Tönen
  1. 1

    neutergerund of tönen

noun

as Tönen
  1. 1

    dative plural of Ton

Source: English Wiktionary, German section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).

How German dictionaries define it

verb: 1. hörbar sein 2. angeberisch sprechen, großspurig reden 3. Farbe leicht verändern

verb: 1. den Farbton einer Aufnahme verändern/verbessern, ursprünglich die Schwarzanteile eines Schwarz-weiß-Bildes durch eine andere Farbe ersetzt

The definition in the German Wiktionary, in German.

Source: German Wiktionary, dump of September 1, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org.

Forms of tönen

  • tönt present singular third-person
  • tönte past
  • getönt participle past
  • haben auxiliary
  • tönend participle present
  • töne first-person indicative present
  • tönst indicative present second-person
  • tönest second-person singular subjunctive
  • tönet plural second-person subjunctive
  • tönten first-person indicative plural
  • töntest indicative preterite second-person
  • töntet indicative plural preterite
  • tön imperative second-person singular
  • habe getönt first-person indicative multiword-construction
  • haben getönt first-person indicative multiword-construction
  • tön! imperative singular
  • töne! imperative singular
  • tönt! imperative plural

Source: English Wiktionary and German Wiktionary (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026).

English words that translate to tönen

Source: the translation tables of the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026.

How common is tönen in German?

tönen appears 4.5 times per million words in written German.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

What to look up after tönen