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Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
overtone
noun
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADJECTIVE
political
▪ Furthermore, these viewpoints in this problem situation are very emotive as they have moral and political overtones.
▪ The course was moved to Reinhardt College in 1994, after complaints about its political overtones stirred a controversy at Kennesaw State.
▪ It is extremely difficult to believe that this cult did not have political overtones.
▪ We had a disastrous snowfall which had serious political overtones.
▪ The industry has always claimed that this was a purely technical decision without any political overtones.
▪ A committee of the sort called for by Cunningham would be a rarity in the Capitol and would have unavoidable political overtones.
racial
▪ This message had clearly coded racial overtones and appealed to many working-class whites, particularly in rural areas of the recession-hit state.
▪ But there are clear racial overtones, which the press has been quick to highlight.
▪ In fact, in the Brixton gang trial, the racial and class overtones of the case were often quite evident.
religious
▪ The hunt has strong religious overtones, and it can only succeed if harmony and peace prevail.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ Be mindful, while you communicate, of the overtones as well as the basic content of your message.
▪ Furthermore, these viewpoints in this problem situation are very emotive as they have moral and political overtones.
▪ It is an informal, forward looking activity with no overtones of criticism.
▪ It was an unofficial meeting with official overtones.
▪ The suggestion for a moratorium on nuclear testing, with its overtones of propaganda, was old and unexciting.
▪ To me it held overtones of rot and decomposition, perhaps imaginary because of my worries about the condition of the raft.
▪ We had a disastrous snowfall which had serious political overtones.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Overtone

Overtone \O"ver*tone`\, n. [A translation of G. oberton. See Over, Tone.] (Mus.) One of the harmonics faintly heard with and at a higher frequency than a fundamental tone as it dies away, produced by some aliquot portion of the vibrating sting or column of air which yields the fundamental tone; one of the natural harmonic scale of tones, as the octave, twelfth, fifteenth, etc.; an aliquot or ``partial'' tone; a harmonic. See Harmonic, and Tone.
--Tyndall.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
overtone

1867, in literal sense, from over + tone (n.); a loan-translation of German Oberton, first used by German physicist Hermann Ludwig Ferdinand von Helmholtz (1821-1894) as a contraction of Overpartialton "upper partial tone." Figurative sense of "subtle implication" is from 1890, first attested in writings of William James.

Wiktionary
overtone

n. 1 (context physics music English) A tone whose frequency is an integer multiple of another; a harmonic 2 An implicit message (in a film, book, verbal discussion or similar) perceived as overwhelming the explicit message. See undertone.

WordNet
overtone
  1. n. (usually plural) an ulterior implicit meaning or quality; "overtones of despair"

  2. a harmonic with a frequency that is a multiple of the fundamental frequency [syn: partial, partial tone]

Wikipedia
Overtone

An overtone is any frequency greater than the fundamental frequency of a sound. Using the model of Fourier analysis, the fundamental and the overtones together are called partials. Harmonics, or more precisely, harmonic partials, are partials whose frequencies are integer multiples of the fundamental (including the fundamental which is 1 times itself). These overlapping terms are variously used when discussing the acoustic behavior of musical instruments. (See etymology below.) The model of Fourier analysis provides for the inclusion of inharmonic partials, which are partials whose frequencies are not whole-number ratios of the fundamental (such as 1.1 or 2.14179).

When a resonant system such as a blown pipe or plucked string is excited, a number of overtones may be produced along with the fundamental tone. In simple cases, such as for most musical instruments, the frequencies of these tones are the same as (or close to) the harmonics. Examples of exceptions include the circular drum, – a timpani whose first overtone is about 1.6 times its fundamental resonance frequency, gongs and cymbals, and brass instruments. The human vocal tract is able to produce highly variable amplitudes of the overtones, called formants, which define different vowels.

Overtone (musical group)

Overtone is an a cappella/vocal band that made its debut in 2006 and originates from Johannesburg, South Africa. Overtone is best known for their vocal renditions of pop music and diverse repertoire. In 2009 they were discovered by Dina Eastwood, wife of actor/director Clint Eastwood while in South Africa shooting his film Invictus. Shortly thereafter they were asked to do the majority of the movie sound track. Overtone has featured as the opening act on the west leg of Corinne Bailey Rae's The Sea Tour and rock band OneRepublic. In December 2010 the casino and resort tycoon Steve Wynn hired Overtone as the feature band for a three-month run at his Wynn and Encore luxury casino and resort in Las Vegas. Overtone resides and performed out of Carmel and Los Angeles whilst being managed by Dina Eastwood.

Usage examples of "overtone".

It sounded louder and closer than it ever did for matins or vespers, its overtones nearly drowning out the other bells.

When I tried to reverse that, she reminded me of a holiday palindrome that has sexual overtones in both our languages: Giving is taking is giving.

Brazilian-African spiritist cult, with some Caribbean and Mexican overtones.

The emotional overtones of the Church of Humanity Unchained were always like some deep, satisfying well of renewal and faith, one she could physically experience thanks to her empathic link to Nimitz.

They are probably there to monitor unusual demand for brain chemicals and carbos in a combination that approximates paranoid hysteria with pseudo-psychotic overtones, a condition that I admit I submitted to momentarily just now.

Not even the Christological overtones of The Book of the New Sun approach the overt meditations on ethics, the spirit, truth, redemption, and God that pervade this later series.

Szgranian, and she laughed again with overtones that Ran Colville had heard often in the flirting voices of human females.

There is a harmony between us, Emul, I feel it in the way our signals merge with overtones of many a high degree!

Paris, who might know where a powerman would go, once a month, to hire blondes for a liaison with -masochistic overtones.

Ira smells like fresh cut lemon grass with overtones of cherry cough drops.

Since she was not naturally a defying kind of person it was not quite the look that she thought it was and it ought to have been, having overtones of haemorrhoid sufferer, but the effort was there.

Even in Berkeley, political rallies during 1966 had overtones of music, madness and absurdity.

The request itself was courteous enough, she supposed, but in that affected accent it took on the overtones of oh-so-civilized contempt for the benighted neobarb among them.

Most of the basic tones were subsonic, sensed in the bones rather than the eardrums, but there were overtones and harmonics aplenty, a cacophony that somehow managed to seem both too bass and too shrill for comfort.

She juggled shields, cataloged the overtones, and searched for telltales, all at the same time.