Meaning

noun the quality of a person's voice

verb utter monotonously and repetitively and rhythmically

noun (linguistics) a pitch or change in pitch of the voice that serves to distinguish words in tonal languages

originFrom Middle English ton, tone, from Latin tonus (“sound, tone”) (possibly through Old French ton), from Ancient Greek τόνος (tónos, “strain, tension, pitch”), from τείνω (teínō, “to stretch”). Doublet of tune, ton, tonos, and tonus.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 3.0