Standard Lemma guide

monotonic

adj · 5 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

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

  • Received-Pronunciation: /ˌmɒnəˈtɒnɪk/
  • General-American, dialectal: /ˌmɑnəˈtɑnɪk/ of Canada
  • California: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • Canada, dialectal: /ˌmɒnəˈtɒnɪk/ of the US
  • Australian: /ˌmɔnəˈtɔnɪk/
  • New-Zealand: /ˌmɒnəˈtɒnək/
  • New-Zealand: [ˌmɔ̟nəˈtɔ̟nək]
  • rhymes with -ɒnɪk

1

adj

Meaning 1

Of or using the Greek system of diacritics which discards the breathings and employs a single accent to indicate stress. It replaced polytonic system in 1982.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: not-comparable

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

2

adj

Meaning 2

Of a function: that either never decreases or never increases as its independent variable increases.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: not-comparable

Topics: mathematics, sciences

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

3

adj

Meaning 3

Uttered in a monotone; monotonous.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: not-comparable

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

4

adjective

Meaning 4

of a sequence or function; consistently increasing and never decreasing or consistently decreasing and never increasing in value

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: monotone

Antonyms: nonmonotonic

5

adjective satellite

Meaning 5

sounded or spoken in a tone unvarying in pitch

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

Examples

  • the owl's faint monotonous hooting

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: flat, monotone, monotonous

Antonyms: none provided

History

Etymology

From Ancient Greek μονότονος (monótonos, “monotone”) + -ικός (-ikós, “-ic”), equivalent to monotone + -ic.

Across languages

Translations

15 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Bulgarian: монотонен (monotonen) — of or using the Greek system of diacritics which discards the breathings and employs a single accent to indicate stress
  • Greek: μονοτονικός (monotonikós) — of or using the Greek system of diacritics which discards the breathings and employs a single accent to indicate stress
  • Asturian: monótonu — mathematics: never decreasing or increasing as its independent variable increases
  • Bulgarian: монотонен (monotonen) — mathematics: never decreasing or increasing as its independent variable increases
  • Catalan: monòton — mathematics: never decreasing or increasing as its independent variable increases
  • Danish: monoton — mathematics: never decreasing or increasing as its independent variable increases
  • French: monotone — mathematics: never decreasing or increasing as its independent variable increases
  • Galician: monótono — mathematics: never decreasing or increasing as its independent variable increases
  • German: monoton — mathematics: never decreasing or increasing as its independent variable increases
  • Icelandic: einhalla — mathematics: never decreasing or increasing as its independent variable increases
  • Irish: aontonach — mathematics: never decreasing or increasing as its independent variable increases
  • Italian: monotono — mathematics: never decreasing or increasing as its independent variable increases
  • Portuguese: monótono — mathematics: never decreasing or increasing as its independent variable increases
  • Spanish: monótono — mathematics: never decreasing or increasing as its independent variable increases
  • Vietnamese: đơn điệu — mathematics: never decreasing or increasing as its independent variable increases