modulation
noun
Simple meaning
Rise and fall of the voice pitch.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
mahjuhlayshuhnSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
mɑdʒəˈleɪʃən
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
music
Rise and fall of the voice pitch
music
A manner of speaking in which the loudness or pitch or tone of the voice is modified
musicuncountable
Variation of the intensity, pitch, and tone of the sound of a musical instrument or voice; inflection; (countable) an instance of this.
musicuncountable
Changing of the key in a piece of music; also, the effect achieved by this as an element of harmony; (countable) an instance of this.
uncountable
Modification or regulation of something to achieve an appropriate measure or proportion; (countable) an instance of this.
A musical passage moving from one key to another
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- B2 · Upper Intermediate
- Frequency
- Moderately Common
- Typical Use
- Varies by meaning
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: Rise and fall of the voice pitch
Used this way, modulation is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. This is a musical use: it is everyday language among musicians and listeners, and specialised outside that.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Matter-of-fact
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Where it naturally appears
- Music/performance
- Arts writing
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
Modulation of the frequency of the (radio) carrier wave.
Modulation of the amplitude of the (radio) carrier wave.
Modulation of the phase of the carrier wave.
Modulation of the time between successive pulses.
Modulation that imposes a signal on a train of pulses.
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Words can change meaning depending on context.
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.