overtone
/ˈoʊvɚtoʊn/
"overtone" is a 8-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“overtone” is uncommon English (frequency #68,509 among 1,431 “O” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #68,509
- frequency rank, English
- 1,431
- “O” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A tone whose frequency is an integer multiple of another; a member of the harmonic series.
Corpus desk
Index EN-overtone · overtone · English
overtone · rank #68,509 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #68,509
- LEN-LONG 8 letters
- VOW-4 4 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 1,431
- PHOTO-FINISH overpayment
Nearest frequency peer: overpayment (-2 rank slots)
Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
Long-tail ranks near “overtone”
Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter
- Ostend
Ostend
31,498 corpus weight
- outtake
outtake
31,497 corpus weight
- overpayment
overpayment
31,494 corpus weight
- overtone
overtone
31,492 corpus weight
- Pakenham
Pakenham
31,489 corpus weight
- paled
paled
31,488 corpus weight
What this shows Long-tail view: where “overtone” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | overtone |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈoʊvɚtoʊn/ |
| Letters | 8 |
| Frequency rank | #68,509 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “overtone” in English
Rare enough to double-check
overtone is uncommon English at frequency #68,509 among 1,431 “O” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /ˈoʊvɚtoʊn/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 3 senses are on record.
Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for overtone, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. Our confusable-pair dataset has no match for it, a sign it's visually distinctive enough not to be mixed up with another word.
Etymologically, the entry records: From over- + tone, calque of German Oberton. The correct English form is overtone, spelled O-V-E-R-T-O-N-E.
Definition
- 1A tone whose frequency is an integer multiple of another; a member of the harmonic series.
- 2An implicit message (in a film, book, verbal discussion, or similar) perceived as overwhelming the explicit message.
- 3An implicit message (in a film, book, verbal discussion, or similar) perceived subtly alongside, but not overwhelming, the explicit message.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how overtone appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
A window opened above the shop, and a frowsty-looking man, yellow-pale, was quickly and nervously hauling in the national flag. There were shouts of derision and mockery—a great overtone of acrid derision—the flag and its owner ignominiously disappeared.
The lawyer and twice-divorced mother of three [Marine Le Pen] had presented herself as the modern face of her party, trying to strip it of unsavoury overtones after her father's [Jean-Marie Le Pen's] convictions for saying the Nazi occupation of France was not "particularly inhumane".
Etymology
From over- + tone, calque of German Oberton.
This word in other languages
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "overtone", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 8 letters (nearest by frequency rank).