overtone Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun (usually plural) an ulterior implicit meaning or quality
    • overtones of despair
  2. noun a harmonic with a frequency that is a multiple of the fundamental frequency
    partial tone; partial.

WordNet

O"ver*tone` noun
Etymology
A translation of G. oberton. See Over,Tone.
Definitions
  1. (Mus.) One of the harmonics faintly heard with and above a 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.

Webster 1913