tone deaf

6 synonyms and 2 antonyms for tone deaf, grouped by meaning and by how common each one is.

Adjective — Badly out of touch with how other people feel, so that what you say or do lands as insensitive or oblivious.

Synonyms

Less common

Still standard English, but they carry more weight.

insensitive oblivious clueless

Rare, literary or technical

Precise, but they will stand out — check the sense before using one.

out of touch unmusical amusic

Synonyms by Meaning

1. adjective

Badly out of touch with how other people feel, so that what you say or do lands as insensitive or oblivious.

“The tone-deaf advert was pulled within two days.”

insensitive oblivious clueless out of touch

Opposites

sensitive perceptive

2. adjective

Unable to hear or reproduce differences in musical pitch accurately.

“I'm completely tone deaf, so I mime in choir.”

unmusical amusic

How to use tone deaf

The word patterns that sound natural to a native speaker.

tone-deaf response strikingly tone deaf politically tone deaf

The figurative sense now dominates in journalism and social media. Hyphenated before a noun (a tone-deaf response) and usually open after a verb (the response was tone deaf).

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between tone deaf and insensitive?

Insensitive means you failed to consider someone's feelings. Tone deaf is narrower and more damning: it implies you misjudged the whole public mood, so the failure looks obvious to everyone but you. It is usually aimed at institutions, campaigns and public figures rather than private remarks.

Am I really tone deaf if I can't sing?

Almost certainly not. True tone deafness, or congenital amusia, means being unable to tell two pitches apart, and affects roughly four per cent of people. Most bad singing is a matter of untrained vocal control, which improves with practice.

Is tone deaf hyphenated?

Hyphenate it when it comes before the noun — a tone-deaf statement — and leave it open after a linking verb — the statement was tone deaf. The same rule applies to the musical sense.

People also searched

sensitive insensitive clueless oblivious amusic perceptive unmusical

Nearby words

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