atonal means lacking a tonal center or key.
atonal is pronounced /eɪˈtoʊnəl/.
Why “atonal” is a great word
Describing music that systematically avoids establishing a home key or harmonic center. From the prefix a- (meaning "not, without") + tonal, from tone; first attested in 1911. Unlike "dissonant," which describes sounds that are harsh within a harmonic framework, or "modal," which organizes pitches around an alternative but still definite center, atonal music is the principled abandonment of musical gravity. It is the sound of twelve tones set adrift, the disorientation of a compass needle spinning freely, the quiet vertigo of a room where all the walls lean—a conscious architecture unmoored from the earth, where no note feels like home.
adj
- Lacking a tonal center or key.e.g.“Gimme some of that ol' atonal music / It lingers in my ears / Schoenberg and Alban Berg / Were the genre's pioneers”
- Not tonal, lacking tones.
Words closest in meaning
By meaning, not spelling — each word's AI semantic fingerprint, nearest first.
- atonality 95% match — A style of music that is written without a key. vs atonal →
- dodecaphony 87% match — Twelve-tone music, a form of composition using all twelve tones of the chromatic scale in such a way that they are equal, i.e. having no tonic, no dominant, no major key or minor keys, and no distinction between harmony and dissonance. vs atonal →
- dissonance 87% match — A harsh, discordant combination of sounds. vs atonal →
- pantonality 87% match — Twelve-tone music, seen as an extension of tonality to all keys (rather than to no key). vs atonal →
- serialism 86% match — Music, especially from the 20th century, in which themes are based on a definite order of notes of an equal-tempered scale. vs atonal →
- tonality 85% match — The system of seven tones built on a tonic key; the 24 major and minor scales. vs atonal →
- polyharmony 83% match — Music that is played in more than one key at once, creating an aesthetically pleasing harmonic sound. vs atonal →
- tritone 83% match — An interval of three whole tones. vs atonal →