adjective
- not relating to or denoting a tonic; lacking tonic quality or effect
Usage: linguistics: used to describe syllables or vowels that do not carry stress or pitch accent; music: used to describe notes or chords that are not the tonic
Examples
- In the word 'photograph,' the first syllable is tonic while the second and third are nontonic.
- The nontonic vowels in the phrase were barely audible.
- Musicians must distinguish between tonic and nontonic chords when analyzing harmonic progressions.
- Nontonic syllables often receive less emphasis in natural speech.
- The linguist marked the nontonic stress patterns in red on the transcription.