tune

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See also: -tune, Tune, and tuné

English

English Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia

Alternative forms

Etymology

From Middle English tune, an unexplained variant of tone,[1] from Old French ton, from Latin tonus, from Ancient Greek τόνος (tónos, a tone). Doublet of tone, ton, and tonus.

Pronunciation

Noun

tune (countable and uncountable, plural tunes)

  1. A melody.
  2. A song, or short musical composition.
  3. (informal) The act of tuning or maintenance.
    Your engine needs a good tune.
  4. The state or condition of being correctly tuned.
    Your engine is now in tune.
    This piano is not in tune.
  5. (obsolete) Temper; frame of mind.
  6. (obsolete) A sound; a note; a tone.
  7. (obsolete) Order; harmony; concord.

Derived terms

Descendants

  • Welsh: tiwn

Translations

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Interjection

tune

  1. (UK, slang) Used to show appreciation or approval of a song.
    You heard the new Rizzle Kicks song? — Tune!

Translations

Verb

tune (third-person singular simple present tunes, present participle tuning, simple past and past participle tuned)

  1. To adjust (a musical instrument) so that it produces the correct pitches.
    to tune a piano or a violin
    • 1568, William Cornishe [i.e., William Cornysh], “In the Fleete Made by Me William Cornishe otherwise Called Nyshwhete Chapelman with the Most Famose and Noble Kyng Henry the VII. His Reygne the XIX. Yere the Moneth of July. A Treatise betwene Trouth, and Information.”, in John Skelton, edited by J[ohn] S[tow], Pithy Pleasaunt and Profitable Workes of Maister Skelton, Poete Laureate, London: Thomas Marshe, →OCLC; republished as Pithy Pleasaunt and Profitable Workes of Maister Skelton, Poete Laureate to King Henry the VIIIth, London: C. Davis , 1736, →OCLC, page 290:
      The Harpe. [] A harper with his wreſt maye tune the harpe wrong
      Mys tunying of an Inſtrument ſhal hurt a true ſonge
    • 1681, John Dryden, The Spanish Fryar: Or, the Double Discovery. , London: Richard Tonson and Jacob Tonson, , →OCLC, Act II, page 21:
      She bids me hope; oh Heav'ns; ſhe pities me!
      And pity ſtill foreruns approching love;
      As Lightning does the Thunder! Tune your Harps
      Ye Angels to that ſound; and thou, my Heart,
      Make room to entertain thy flowing Joy.
    • 1693, Decimus Junius Juvenalis, John Dryden, transl., “ The Tenth Satyr”, in The Satires of Decimus Junius Juvenalis. Translated into English Verse. Together with the Satires of Aulus Persius Flaccus. , London: Printed for Jacob Tonson , →OCLC, page 199:
      Fortune foretun'd the Dying Notes of Rome:
      Till I, thy Conſul ſole, conſol'd thy Doom.
  2. To adjust or modify (especially a mechanical or electrical device) so that it functions optimally.
    Coordinate term: dial in
    Tuning the engine gave me an extra twenty horsepower.
    Tune your mind, and anything becomes possible.
  3. To adjust the frequency on a radio or TV set, so as to receive the desired channel.
    Synonym: tune in
    Tune to Channel 6 for all your favourite daytime shows.
  4. Of faculties, senses, etc.: to adapt to or direct towards a particular target.
    My ears were tuned to the sounds of the forest.
  5. To make more precise, intense, or effective; to put into a proper state or disposition.
  6. To attune; to adapt in style of music; to make harmonious.
  7. (transitive) To give a certain tone or character to.
  8. (transitive) To set (lyrics) to music.
    • 1977 April 9, Charley Shively, “Ginsberg Triumphant”, in Gay Community News, page 12:
      Ginsberg sang some poems from William Blake which he had "tuned".
  9. (obsolete) To sing with melody or harmony.
  10. (transitive, South Africa, slang) To be impudent towards; to cheek.
    Are you tuning me?
  11. (fandom slang) to adjust the parameters of singing voice synthesis software such as VOCALOID (in order to achieve certain singing techniques, increase the human quality of the voice, etc.)
    • 2017 August 10, Keisuke Yamada, Supercell's Supercell featuring Hatsune Miku, Bloomsbury Publishing USA, →ISBN:
      [] Those who are highly skilled in manipulating the Vocaloid technology—e.g., tuning Miku's singing voices—arrange existing []
    • 2018 December 6, Nina Sun Eidsheim, The Race of Sound: Listening, Timbre, and Vocality in African American Music, Duke University Press, →ISBN:
      LOLA's voice is used simply to render basic notes and words with no pitch or expression tuning applied.
    • 2020, Janice L. Waldron, Stephanie Horsley, Kari K. Veblen, The Oxford Handbook of Social Media and Music Learning, Oxford University Press, USA, →ISBN, page 522:
      This compiling of a track holds many parallels with “tuning” a Miku track, []

Derived terms

Translations

References

Further reading

Anagrams

French

Pronunciation

Noun

tune f (plural tunes)

  1. (slang) Alternative spelling of thune

Further reading

Anagrams

German

Pronunciation

Verb

tune

  1. inflection of tunen:
    1. first-person singular present
    2. first/third-person singular subjunctive I
    3. singular imperative

Kapampangan

Etymology

From Proto-Malayo-Polynesian *tunay (cf. Tagalog tunay, Indonesian tunai, Malay tunai).

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /tʊˈne/
  • Hyphenation: tu‧ne

Adjective

tune

  1. real; genuine

Middle English

Noun

tune

  1. Alternative form of toun

Ngarrindjeri

tune or sand

Noun

tune

  1. sand

Old English

Pronunciation

Noun

tūne

  1. dative singular of tūn

Portuguese

Verb

tune

  1. inflection of tunar:
    1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
    2. third-person singular imperative

Romanian

Pronunciation

Verb

tune

  1. third-person singular/plural present subjunctive of tuna

Spanish

Verb

tune

  1. inflection of tunar:
    1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
    2. third-person singular imperative

Tarantino

Pronoun

tune (personal, second person singular)

  1. you

tune m (possessive, feminine toje)

  1. your