Monotonous

Definition: Monotonous

Monotonous

Adjective

1. Sounded or spoken in a tone unvarying in pitch; "the owl's faint monotonous hooting".

2. Tediously repetitious or lacking in variety; "a humdrum existence; all work and no play"; "nothing is so monotonous as the sea".

Date "monotonous" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1615. (references)

Etymology: Monotonous \Mo*not"o*nous\, adjective. [expression of Greek origin; mo`nos alone, single tone. See Tone.]. (Websters 1913)

Synonyms: Monotonous

Synonyms: humdrum (adj), monotone (adj), monotonic (adj). (additional references)

Context	Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus).
Dullness	Stupid, slow, flat, insipid, vapid, humdrum, monotonous; melancholic; stolid; plodding.
Equality	Adjective: equal, even, level, monotonous, coequal, symmetrical, coordinate; on a par with, on a level with, on a footing with; up to the mark; equiparant.
Feebleness	Adjective: feeble, bald, tame, meager, jejune, vapid, bland, trashy, lukewarm, cold, frigid, poor, dull, dry, languid; colorless, enervated; proposing, prosy, prosaic; unvaried, monotonous, weak, washy, wishy-washy; sketchy, slight.
Permanence	Adjective: stable; persisting; Verb: permanent; established; unchanged; (change; ); renewed; intact, inviolate; persistent; monotonous, uncheckered; unfailing.
Repetition	Monotonous, harping, iterative, recursive, unvaried; mocking, chiming; retold; aforesaid, aforenamed; above-mentioned, above-said; habitual; another.
Uniformity	Adjective: uniform; homogeneous, homologous;of a piece, consistent, connatural; monotonous, even, invariable; regular, unchanged, undeviating, unvaried, unvarying.
Weariness	Adjective: wearying; Verb: wearing; wearisome, tiresome, irksome; uninteresting, stupid, bald, devoid of interest, dry, monotonous, dull, arid, tedious, humdrum, mortal, flat; prosy, prosing; slow, soporific, somniferous.
Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus.

Crosswords: Monotonous

English words defined with "monotonous": chanting, chantlike, crank out ♦ Dingdong, donkeywork, drone, drone on, drudgery ♦ Faburden ♦ grind, grind out, groove ♦ hum, humdrum ♦ intonation, intoned ♦ mechanise, mechanize, monotone, monotonic, Monotonical, monotonously ♦ plodding ♦ rut ♦ screed, singsong, subtopia ♦ thrum ♦ vegetation, vegetative, vegetive. (references)

Specialty definitions using "monotonous": division of work ♦ fragmentation of jobs, fragmented work ♦ omparcellering ♦ psychosocial work environment factor. (references)

Etymologies containing "monotonous": monotone. (references)

Domain

Usage

Screenplays

Wouldn't that get a little monotonous, just Akron, cold beer and 'poor, poor thing' for two weeks? (Harvey; writing credit: Mary Chase;)

Wounds my heart with a monotonous languor. (The Longest Day; writing credit: Romain Gary; James Jones)

Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Domain	Title
Music	In the Monotonous Flowers (reference) (more classical music examples; more popular music examples)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Author	Date	Quotation
Communist Manifesto	1848	He becomes an appendage of the machine, and it is only the most simple, most monotonous, and most easily acquired knack, that is required of him. (reference)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

Title	Author	Quote
So Long, and Thanks For All the Fish	Douglas Adams	He had read somewhere that the Eskimos had over two hundred different words for snow, without which their conversation would probably have got very monotonous. So they would distinguish between thin snow and thick snow, light snow and heavy snow, sludgy s
Les Miserables	Hugo, Victor	Then he resumed this monotonous and dismal walk, which disturbed the man asleep beneath him in his dreams, and wakened him out of his sleep.
Walden	Thoreau, Henry David	The shore is irregular enough not to be monotonous.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

"Monotonous" is generally used as an adjective (general or positive) -- approximately 100.00% of the time. "Monotonous" is used about 226 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted)

Parts of Speech	Percent	Usage per 100 Million Words	Rank in English
Adjective (general or positive)	100%	226	20,021

Expressions using "monotonous": make less monotonous ♦ monotonous singing. Additional references.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com.

Language		Translations for "monotonous"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses.
Albanian		monoton (drab, even, flat, jogtrot, monotone, singsong, toneless, unrelieved), uniform (equable, measured, monotone), i mërzitur (annoyed, blue, bored, creepy, disgruntled, dissatisfied, down-hearted, fed up, gloomily, gloomy, long-spun, moldy, monotone, mouldy, pained). (various references)

Arabic		‏ممل (boring, dreary, dull, humdrum, irksome, iterative, mundane, ponderous, slow, stodgy, tedious, tiresome, troublesome, uninteresting, vapid, weariful, wearisome, weary), ‏وتيري, ‏رتيب (drab, featureless, humdrum, vegetable). (various references)

Bulgarian		скучен (arid, dead alive, drear, dryasdust, dull, dumb, dusty, heartbreaking, heavy, humdrum, insipid, jejune, jogtrot, long, long winded, long-spun, moldy, mouldy, mousey, plodding, pokey, ponderous, prosaic, prosy, slow, soggy, stodgy, stuffy, tedious, uninspired, uninteresting, unvaried, vapid, weariful, wearisome), монотонен (monotone, singsong, uninspired, unrelieved, unvaried, vegetable), еднообразен (dead, flat, hack, humdrum, jogtrot, monotone, tame, tedious, unenlivened, unleavened, unvaried), досаден (aggravating, annoying, boring, bothersome, importunate, intrusive, irksome, irritating, lengthy, long winded, mundane, obtrusive, officious, pain in the neck, painful, pesky, pestiferous, pestilent, plaguesome, plaguy, ponderous, prolix, provoking, tedious, tiresome, tiring, vexatious, weariful, wearisome, weary). (various references)

Chinese		单调 (humdrum, monotone, monotonic, monotony), 單調 . (various references)

Czech		monotónní (dull, humdrum), jednotvárný (drab, dull, featureless, humdrum, jejune, trivial, uneventful, uniform, unrelieved). (various references)

Danish		monoton, ensformig. (various references)

Dutch		monotoon, saai (boring, dull, lifeless, stodgy, tiresome), eentonig. (various references)

Esperanto		monotona, unutona. (various references)

Farsi		یکنواخت (Same, Steady), خسته کننده (Bore, Insipid, Prolix, Tedious, Tiresome, Wearisome). (various references)

Finnish		yksitoikkoinen (unvaried). (various references)

French		monotone (monotone). (various references)

Frisian		monotoan. (various references)

German		monoton (unrelieved), eintönig (drab, drably, humdrum, monotonously, monotonuos, samey, soulless, toneless, uneventful, uniform, unrelieved, unvaried). (various references)

Greek		μονότονοσ (blank, prosaic, prosaical, unvaried). (various references)

Hebrew		מו� וטו� י, משעמם (boring, drab, dry, dull, humdrum, logy, mundane, tedious, tiresome, uneventful), ח�"�'ו� י, ח�" �'ו� י (drab, humdrum, monochromatic, singsong, tedious, unvaried). (various references)

Hungarian		monoton (chant, jog-trot, monotone, monotonic, singsong, sing-song), egyhangú (dull, humdrum, jog trot, jog-trot, monotone, monotonic, muzzy, unanimous, unexciting). (various references)

Indonesian		membosankan (arid, bore, boring, drab, tedious). (various references)

Italian		monotono (blank, dull, flat, humdrum, monotone, singsong, slow), uniforme (equable, flat, plain, solid, uniform). (various references)

Japanese Kanji		変�"�も無い (mediocre, usual), 変�"�もない (mediocre, usual). (various references)

Japanese Katakana		へ�"てつもない (mediocre, usual). (various references)

Korean		단조한. (various references)

Manx		unsheeanagh. (various references)

Pig Latin		onotonousmay

Portuguese		monótono (arid, drab, dreary, flat, humeral, monotone, repetitious, singsong, vapid, wearisome). (various references)

Romanian		monoton (bald, dead, ding-dong, drab, dull, flat, humdrum, inanimate, monotonously, same, singsong, slow, tame, uneventful), uniform (equable, flat, level, uniform, uniformly), plictisitor (boring, boringly, dead, dreadful, dry, dull, dully, flat, heavy, irksome, jejune, languorous, long winded, long-spun, monotonously, pedestrian, pesky, pestersome, pestiferous, repetitious, repetitive, sententious, slow, tedious, tediously, tiresome, trying, weary). (various references)

Russian		однообразный (even, flat, humdrum, jogtrot, monotone, one track, same, unenlivened, uniform), монотонный (monotone, monotonic, singsong, unrelieved). (various references)

Serbo-Croatian		monoton (flat, tedious, unvaried), jednoličan (drab, uneventful, uniform, unvaried). (various references)

Spanish		monótono (dead alive, drab, drear, dreary, humdrum, monotone, prosy, repetitious, singsong). (various references)

Swedish		monoton (flat, monotone), entonig (monotone), enformig (drab, dull, humdrum, repetitious). (various references)

Turkish		monotonluk (dinginess, dryness, flatness, monotone, monotony, sameness, squirrel cage, tameness, uniformity), monoton (drab, humdrum, monotone, opaque, soul-destroying, soulless), tekdüze (drab, flat, humdrum, monotone, singsong, soul-destroying, uniform), bítevíye. (various references)

Turkmen		birhili (somewhat, strange). (various references)

Ukrainian		нудний (arid, barren, dead alive, depressing, heartbreaking, humdrum, insipid, irksome, long winded, matter of fact, prolix, prosaic, prosy, repetitious, soggy, stodgy, stuffy, stupid, tedious, weariful, wearying, workaday), монотонний (dead alive, monotone, repetitious, singsong, toneless). (various references)

Vietnamese		đều đều (even, regular, regularly, same, singsong, undiversified). (various references)

Welsh		undonog. (various references)
Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references.

Language	Period	Translations
Late Latin	300-700	unisonius. (various references)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

Derivations
	Words beginning with "monotonous": monotonously, monotonousness, monotonousnesses. (additional references)
Misspellings
	"Monotonous" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: momotonous, monnotonous, monogonous, monotanous, monotinous, monotinus, monotoneous, monotonious, monotonius, monotonos, monotonouse, monotonus, monotunis, monoyonous, monstonous, montonous. (additional references)
Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references).

# of Phoneme Matches	Pronunciation	Word(s) rhyming with "monotonous" (pronounced munÄ"tunus)
5	-t u n u s	chitinous, gelatinous, gluttonous, mountainous, mutinous, tetanus.
4	-u n u s	androgynous, asynchronous, bituminous, Deaconess, exogenous, genuineness, homogenous, indigenous, larcenous, luminous, membranous, nitrogenous, nonpoisonous, ominous, outspokenness, poisonous, polygynous, ravenous, ruinous, villainous, voluminous.
3	-n u s	abruptness, absoluteness, acuteness, aggressiveness, agribusiness, airworthiness, alertness, aloofness, alumnus, Anas, anise, appropriateness, arbitrariness, assertiveness, astuteness, attentiveness, attractiveness, awareness, awfulness, awkwardness, backwardness, badness, bagginess, baldness, bearishness, bigness, bitterness, blackness, blandness, bleakness, blindness, bluntness, boldness, bonus, boorishness, brashness, brightness, bullishness, business, callousness, calmness, carelessness, casualness, cautiousness, cavernous, cheapness, cleanliness, cleanness, cleverness, closeness, cloudiness, clumsiness, cockiness, cohesiveness, coldness, Colonus, combativeness, compactness, competitiveness, completeness, consciousness, contagiousness, contentiousness, contrariness, Conus, coolness, correctness, coziness, craziness, creativeness, creditworthiness, creepiness, crispness, crookedness, cuteness, dampness, darkness, deadliness, deafness, decisiveness, defensiveness, destructiveness, directness, disingenuousness, distinctiveness, divisiveness, dizziness, dreariness, drowsiness, drunkenness, dryness, dullness, eagerness, earnestness, edginess, effectiveness, elusiveness, emptiness, evenness, eyewitness, faintness, fairness, farsightedness, fastness, fickleness, firmness, fitness, flatness, fondness, foolishness, forcefulness, forgiveness, forthrightness, foulness, fractiousness, frankness, freshness, friendliness, frothiness, fullness, funniness, furnace, gauntness, gayness, gentleness, genus, ghastliness, goodness, governess, graciousness, greatness, greenness, grimness, hairiness, handedness, happiness, hardness, harmfulness, harness, harshness, heinous, helplessness, highness, hoarseness, holiness, homelessness, homesickness, hopefulness, hopelessness, humanness, idleness, illness, inclusiveness, indebtedness, indecisiveness, ineffectiveness, ineptness, inertness, intravenous, intrusiveness, inventiveness, joblessness, Johannes, kindness, largeness, lateness, lawlessness, laziness, lenis, lightfastness, lightness, likeness, liveliness, loneliness, lousiness, madness, Manus, meanness, menace, Minas, mindedness, minus, narrowness, nastiness, nearsightedness, neatness, nervousness, newness, niceness, niggardliness, nonbusiness, nosiness, nothingness, numbness, oneness, onus, openness, orderliness, otherness, outrageousness, pandanus, peacefulness, penis, permissiveness, persuasiveness, pervasiveness, pettiness, playfulness, politeness, pompousness, possessiveness, powerlessness, preparedness, queasiness, quickness, quietness, raciness, randomness, rareness, rawness, readiness, reasonableness, rebelliousness, recklessness, redness, remoteness, resistiveness, resourcefulness, responsiveness, restiveness, restlessness, restrictiveness, richness, righteousness, rightness, riskiness, robustness, roominess, roughness, rowdiness, rudeness, ruthlessness, sacredness, sadness, Salinas, sameness, scantiness, secretiveness, selfishness, selflessness, sensitiveness, separateness, seriousness, shakiness, shallowness, sharpness, shortness, shortsightedness, shrewdness, shyness, sickness, silliness, sinus, skittishness, slackness, sleepiness, sloppiness, slovenliness, slowness, sluggishness, slyness, smallness, smoothness, smugness, softness, solitariness, soundness, spiritedness, squeamishness, starkness, steadfastness, steadiness, steepness, sternness, stiffness, stillness, stinginess, stoutness, strangeness, stubbornness, sturdiness, suddenness, suggestiveness, sweetness, swiftness, tardiness, tartness, tastiness, tenderness, thickness, thinness, thoroughness, thoughtfulness, tightness, timeliness, tiredness, togetherness, toughness, trustworthiness, truthfulness, ugliness, unconsciousness, uneasiness, unfairness, unhappiness, uniqueness, unpleasantness, unwieldiness, unwillingness, usefulness, vagueness, vastness, venous, viciousness, vindictiveness, vividness, wariness, wastefulness, waterishness, weakness, weariness, weightlessness, weirdness, wellness, wetness, whiteness, wholeness, wholesomeness, wickedness, wilderness, wildness, willingness, wimpiness, wistfulness, witness, wonderfulness, worldliness, worthiness, wryness.
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits.

Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams
	Words within the letters "m-n-n-o-o-o-o-s-t-u"
	-3 letters: monsoon, moutons.
	-4 letters: mounts, mouton, mutons.
	-5 letters: monos, moons, moots, mount, muons, muton, nomos, noons, notum, nouns, snoot, snout, tonus, toons.
	Words containing the letters "m-n-n-o-o-o-o-s-t-u"
	+2 letters: monotonously.
	+3 letters: nonautonomous.
	+4 letters: monotonousness.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro.