monotony
nounUK /məˈnɒtəni/ · US /məˈnɑtəni/
Etymology From French monotonie, from Late Latin monotonia, from Ancient Greek μονοτονία (monotonía, “sameness of tone, monotony”).
1
Tedium as a result of repetition or a lack of variety.
- It matters little to trace the rapidity of the land journey, or the monotony of the sea voyage—alike unmarked by adventure. Robert Evelyn landed at Southampton,...1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter II, in Francesca Carrara. […], volume I, London: Richard Bentley, […], (successor to Henry Colburn), →OCLC, page 24:
- Yet second-hand romance and second-hand emotion are surely better than the dull, soul-killing monotony which life brings to most of the human race.1907, Arthur Conan Doyle, chapter 1, in Through the Magic Door, archived from the original on 12 Apr 2011:
1 more example
- Transform my death into a conduit This body separate from the fear of fear Inside a coping mechanism of monotony I will destroy the double vision that I was forced to leave2023, “Angel Eyes”, performed by Spiritbox:
2
Mathematics, Sciences The property of a monotonic function.
3
The quality of having an unvarying tone or pitch.
- Antonyms
- polytony
- Derived terms
- monotone, monotonist, monotonous