noun
Meaning 1
Tedium as a result of repetition or a lack of variety.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
Standard Lemma guide
monotony
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.
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Received-Pronunciation: /məˈnɒtəni/
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General-American, dialectal: /məˈnɑtəni/ of Canada
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General-American, dialectal: /məˈnɑtni/ of Canada
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California, Southern: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
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Canada, dialectal: /məˈnɒtəni/ of the US
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Australian: /məˈnɔtəni/
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New-Zealand: /məˈnɒtəni/
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New-Zealand: [məˈnɔ̟təni]
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CMU ARPABET: M AH0 N AA1 T AH0 N IY0 Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.
noun
Meaning 2
The property of a monotonic function.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Topics: mathematics, sciences
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Meaning 3
The quality of having an unvarying tone or pitch.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Meaning 4
constancy of tone or pitch or inflection
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: constancy, stability
noun
Meaning 5
the quality of wearisome constancy, routine, and lack of variety
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
Examples
- he had never grown accustomed to the monotony of his work
- he was sick of the humdrum of his fellow prisoners
- he hated the sameness of the food the college served
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: humdrum, sameness
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: unvariedness
History
Etymology
From French monotonie, from Late Latin monotonia, from Ancient Greek μονοτονία (monotonía, “sameness of tone, monotony”).
Across languages
Translations
29 source translations are retained for this English entry.
- Bulgarian: монотонност (monotonnost) — tedium
- Bulgarian: еднообразие (ednoobrazie) — tedium
- Catalan: monotonia — tedium
- Chinese Mandarin: 單調 /单调 (dāndiào) — tedium
- Czech: monotónnost — tedium
- Danish: monotoni — tedium
- Esperanto: monotoneco — tedium
- Finnish: yksitoikkoisuus — tedium
- French: monotonie — tedium
- Galician: monotonía — tedium
- German: Eintönigkeit — tedium
- German: Monotonie — tedium
- Greenlandic: assigiiaamik periaaseqarneq — tedium
- Hungarian: monotónia — tedium
- Irish: leadrán — tedium
- Irish: liostacht — tedium
- Māori: takeo — tedium
- Plautdietsch: Lankwiel — tedium
- Plautdietsch: Äwadreessichkjeit — tedium
- Portuguese: monotonia — tedium
- Romanian: monotonie — tedium
- Spanish: monotonía — tedium
- Chinese Mandarin: 單調性 /单调性 (dāndiàoxìng) — property of mathematical function
- Galician: monotonía — property of mathematical function
- German: Monotonie — property of mathematical function
- Greek: μονοτονία (monotonía) — property of mathematical function
- Icelandic: einhalli — property of mathematical function
- Portuguese: monotonia — property of mathematical function
- Romanian: monotonie — property of mathematical function