attune means to bring into musical accord.
attune is pronounced /əˈtjuːn/.
Why “attune” is a great word
To bring into a state of harmony, accord, or sympathetic relationship, often by adjusting or sensitizing. Formed within English from the verb 'tune', with the prefix 'at-' (a form of 'ad-' meaning 'to'), probably suggested by the earlier word 'atone'; first attested in the 1590s. Unlike 'adjust', which makes a mechanical change to fit a standard, or 'acclimatize', which denotes a general adaptation to new conditions, to attune is to achieve a conscious, sensitive alignment. It is the violinist’s ear minutely turning a peg until the string resonates perfectly with the oboe’s A; it is the slow quieting of breath to match another’s in a dim room; it is the quiet recalibration of one’s own mood to truly hear the sorrow in another’s voice—a subtle tuning of the self to the frequency of the world, a whispered covenant between separate beings who have chosen, finally, to listen.
verb
- To bring into musical accord.
- To tune (an instrument).
- To bring into harmony or accord.e.g.“By meditating, I try to attune myself to the greater cosmos.”
- To fill with music.e.g.“Is yonder wave the sun's eternal bed? / Soon shall the orient with new lustre burn, / And spring shall soon her vital influence shed, / Again attune the grove, […]”
Words closest in meaning
By meaning, not spelling — each word's AI semantic fingerprint, nearest first.
- untune 84% match — To cause (something) to be out of tune; to make incapable of harmony, or of harmonious action. vs attune →
- concent 83% match — harmony vs attune →
- attemper 83% match — To temper by adjusting relative quantities, or blending qualities. vs attune →
- assonate 83% match — To correspond or exhibit agreement in (particularly vowel) sounds. vs attune →
- consonancy 83% match — Congruity; consistency. vs attune →
- acculturate 82% match — To change the culture of (a person) by the influence of another culture, especially a more dominant culture. vs attune →
- rapport 82% match — A relationship of mutual trust and respect; a close and harmonious relationship in which the people or groups concerned understand each other's feelings or ideas and communicate well. vs attune →
- orchestrate 82% match — To arrange or score music for performance by an orchestra. vs attune →