Definition of "atonic" []

• Not accented: an atonic syllable. (adjective)
• Pathology Relating to, caused by, or exhibiting lack of muscle tone. (adjective)
• A word, syllable, or sound that is unaccented. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "This state has been absurdly enough called the atonic gout, as if there were a gout accompanied with vigour and sthenic diathesis: but the absence of inflammation in the extremities may depend on two causes."
• "The researchers did find that women who used triptans in their second or third trimester were more likely to develop a condition called atonic uterus, in which the uterus fails to contract back to its normal size after delivery."
• "A sequence of atonic closed vowel + open vowel + atonic closed vowel can be pronounced, in certain cases, as one syllable, a triphthong, and in others as two distinct syllables, with a hiatus followed by a diphthong, or vice versa."