Timbre distinguishes sounds according to their source, such as choir voices and musical instruments. It also enables listeners to distinguish instruments in the same category (e.g., an oboe and a clarinet, …

Timbre in modern English generally refers to the quality of a sound made by a particular voice or musical instrument; timbre is useful in being distinct from pitch, intensity, and loudness as a descriptor of sound.

Jun 27, 2024 · Essentially, timbre is a word to describe the overall sound of a note, and it’s how we describe why one instrument sounds different from another, even when playing the same note.

Timbre can be defined as describing the tone-colour or tone quality of a sound. It is how we identify the difference between the quality of tone of one instrument/voice from another.

Describing qualities of sound (Definition of timbre from the Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary & Thesaurus © Cambridge University Press)

Aug 25, 2025 · Timbre (pronounced TAM-ber) refers to the quality or tone color of a sound that makes it distinct from other sounds, even when pitch and loudness are identical.

Timbre is pronounced tam-burr. It’s not made of wood, and it’s not what you yell as a tree falls. It’s also not a stamp (unless you're speaking French). So what is timbre? “Timbre” refers to the characteristic …