Intonation

Intonation is the tone that is used when speaking, as the name might suggest.

Rising intonation means the pitch of the voice goes up; falling intonation means that the pitch goes down. For example, northeastern American English has a rising intonation for questions, and a falling intonation for statements; the sound of an approaching car has a rising intonation, and a departing car has a falling intonation (see Doppler effect).

The word intonation is also a synonym for musical tuning. If a musician has bad intonation, it means they play out of tune.

Many languages use intonation to convey surprise or indicate that a remark is a question. Some languages use intonation to convey meaning: they are known as tonal languages.