undertone

1 a quiet or hushed tone of voice; "spoke in undertones"

2 subdued emotional quality underlying an utterance; implicit meaning [syn: undercurrent]

3 a pale or subdued color [syn: tinge]

English

Noun

1. an auditory tone of low pitch or volume
2. an implied meaning; an undercurrent
3. a pale colour, or one seen underneath another colour

Undertone can mean:

• An underlying or implied tendency or meaning; an undercurrent
• An element of an undertone series; a pitch whose frequency is an integral fraction of another
• The Irish rock band The Undertones

affective meaning, air, allegory, allusion, arcane meaning, aspiration, assumption, atmosphere, aura, bated breath, bearing, breath, breathy voice, climate, coloration, coloring, connotation, consequence, denotation, drift, effect, essence, exhalation, extension, feel, feeling, force, gist, grammatical meaning, hint, idea, impact, implication, implied meaning, import, inference, innuendo, intension, intimation, ironic suggestion, lexical meaning, literal meaning, little voice, low voice, meaning, metaphorical sense, milieu, mumble, mumbling, murmur, murmuration, murmuring, mutter, muttering, note, nuance, occult meaning, overtone, pertinence, pith, point, practical consequence, presumption, presupposition, purport, quality, range of meaning, real meaning, reference, referent, relation, relevance, rumor, scope, semantic cluster, semantic field, sense, sigh, significance, signification, significatum, signifie, soft voice, span of meaning, spirit, stage whisper, still small voice, structural meaning, subsense, subsidiary sense, substance, suggestion, sum, sum and substance, supposition, susurration, susurrus, symbolic meaning, symbolism, tenor, tinge, tone, totality of associations, touch, transferred meaning, unadorned meaning, underbreath, undercurrent, undermeaning, value, whisper, whispering