monotonous

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek μονότονος (monótonos, “of one tone”),^[2][3][4][5] with the English suffix -ous.^[2][3][6] The Greek adjective is formed from μόνος (mónos, “alone, single”) and τόνος (tónos, “tone”).^[3][2][4] The OED compares the slightly earlier adjectives monotone and monotonical.^[2] The mathematical sense follows German monoton.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Of a sound or voice, unvarying in tone or pitch: 1774, in a letter of T. Twining.^[2] Etymonline dates this sense to 1750,^[7] and Merriam-Webster to 1776.^[4]

Semantic evolution

The word was first used of sounds and speech that keep to one note, and also of an instrument able to play only one note.^[2] By 1780, in Fanny Burney's diary, it had been extended to anything tedious through sameness or repetition;^[2] Etymonline dates this transferred use to 1783.^[7] Fowler observed that the secondary sense had nearly swallowed the primary one, and recommended monotonic for "of one pitch".^[7] In mathematics it has been used since 1890 for monotonic in its technical sense.^[2]

Timeline

• 1774 – of a sound or utterance, unvarying in pitch or tone.^[2]
• 1780 – lacking variety; tedious through sameness.^[2] Etymonline dates it to 1783.^[7]
• 1845 – as an adverb, monotonously, in Browning (obsolete, rare).^[2]
• 1890 – in mathematics, monotonic.^[2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Dull and tedious because nothing changes or varies: She found the long drive across the plains monotonous.^[8][4][2]
2. Spoken or sounded in one unvarying tone, without changes of pitch or cadence.^[8][4][2]
3. (mathematics) Monotonic.^[2][9]

Word family

• monotonously
• monotonousness
• unmonotonous

Related words

• monotone
• monotony
• monotonic
• tone

Usage notes

Fowler, quoted by Etymonline, noted that the sense "tedious" had nearly crowded out the sense "of one tone", and pointed to monotonic for the second.^[7]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
4. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
6. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
7. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
9. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press