tonus
"tonus" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“tonus” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 5
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - tonicity; tone
Corpus desk
Index EN-tonus · tonus · English
tonus · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MID 5 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "T" thin
- PHOTO-UNK Peer pending
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.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | tonus |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| Letters | 5 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “tonus” in English
Rare enough to double-check
tonus is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
Zero misspellings are on record for tonus in our index, since its letter pattern doesn't lend itself to common typo substitutions. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, which usually means its spelling is distinct enough that readers don't reach for a similar-looking word instead.
Etymologically, the entry records: Borrowed from Latin tonus (“strain, tension”). Doublet of tone, tune, and ton (fashion/style). The correct English form is tonus, spelled T-O-N-U-S.
Definition
- 1tonicity; tone
- 2A tonal system or mode used in Gregorian chant.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how tonus appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
muscular tonus
The amount of stretch possible increases with the range in the joint and decreases with the cross section of the muscle and the amount of tonus or contraction in these antagonists .
Etymology
Borrowed from Latin tonus (“strain, tension”). Doublet of tone, tune, and ton (fashion/style).
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.