Standard Lemma guide

intonate

verb · 6 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

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  • UK: /ˈɪntəʊneɪt/

1

verb

Meaning 1

To intone or recite (words), especially emphatically or in a chanting manner.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: dated, intransitive, transitive

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

2

verb

Meaning 2

To say or speak with a certain intonation.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: dated, transitive

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

3

verb

Meaning 3

To intone or vocalize (musical notes); to sound the tones of the musical scale; to practise the sol-fa.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: dated, transitive

Examples

  • 1844, The order for morning and evening prayer, and the Litany : with plain-tune, according to the use of the United Church of England and Ireland, London: J. Burns,Editor’s Preface, A comma or colon was intonated by the fall of a minor third from the key-note on the ultimate or penultimate and ultimate syllables of the clause [...]

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

4

verb

Meaning 4

To thunder or to utter in a sonorous or thunderous voice.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: obsolete

Examples

  • 19th century, Sumner Lincoln Fairfield, “Ode to Deity” in Poems, New York: E. Bliss and E. White et al., p. 159, And o’er the sphere the forked lightning flies, And intonating thunders shake the skies.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

5

verb

Meaning 5

recite with musical intonation; recite as a chant or a psalm

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

Examples

  • The rabbi chanted a prayer

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: chant, intone, cantillate

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: sing

Narrower terms: singsong

6

verb

Meaning 6

speak carefully, as with rising and falling pitch or in a particular tone

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

Examples

  • please intonate with sadness

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: intone

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: pronounce, label, judge

History

Etymology

First attested in 1795; borrowed from Medieval Latin intonātus, perfect passive participle of intonō (“to vocalize, chant”) (see -ate (verb-forming suffix)), from in- (inchoative prefix) + tonus (“pitch, tone”) + -ō (verb-forming suffix); doublet of intone. Cognate with French entonner, Italian intonare.

First attested in 1631; borrowed from Latin intonātus, perfect passive participle of intonō (“to thunder forth”), see -ate (verb-forming suffix).