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tones

Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.

Letters

5 characters

Language

English

word origin

Source

Wiktionary

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Detailed reference entry for the English word "tones", 5-letters, with pronunciation in International Phonetic Alphabet notation, etymology traced through Germanic and Romance roots where applicable, common misspelling variants catalogued from Hunspell error dictionaries, and usage frequency ranked against the top 100,000 English words in the Wordfreq corpus. PlainSpell covers English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German spelling with confusable-pair detection that highlights visually and phonetically similar words. This entry for "tones" includes synonyms, antonyms, homophones, and cross-language translation pointers sourced from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org extract. Whether you are verifying the correct spelling of "tones" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.

tones is aEnglishnoun. It means: plural of tone Pronounced /təʊnz/. Often confused with TOS and Tony.

Key facts for tones
PropertyValue
Headwordtones
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
IPA/təʊnz/
Letters5
Frequency rank#10,297
Misspellings tracked7
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Frequency rank visualization

Position of tones in English word frequency (lower rank = more common)

Source: Wordfreq corpus

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The English entry for tones is 5 letters long, classified as anoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /təʊnz/. Corpus data places it at rank #10,297 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it.The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "plural of tone".

Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 7 documented wrong-spelling variants for tones, with forms such as "otnes", "tnoes", and "toens". Each variant represents a distinct typo pattern that appears often enough in corpora to be worth flagging, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution.It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "TOS", "Tony", "tons", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.

No explicit etymology string is stored for this entry, so spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct English form is tones, spelled T-O-N-E-S, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.

Definition

  1. 1
    plural of tone

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as: otnes,tnoes,toens,toness,tonnes,tonse,ttones

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

Relative frequency of common misspelling types for tones

Misspelling Variants of "tones"

otnes5tnoes5toens5toness6tonnes6tonse5ttones6
Misspelling Variants of "tones"

Frequency rank: #10,297 in English

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "tones"?
"tones" is spelled T-O-N-E-S. The IPA pronunciation is /təʊnz/.
What does "tones" mean?
As a noun, "tones" means: plural of tone
What words are commonly confused with "tones"?
"tones" is commonly confused with "TOS", "Tony", "tons". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "tones"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "tones" is /təʊnz/. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "tones" come from?
"tones" is a English word. PlainSpell covers definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Nearby English words

Other entries that begin with the letter T in our English index:

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Data Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Frequency data from Wordfreq. Misspellings derived from Hunspell dictionaries.