Definition of "tonality" [to•nal•i•ty]

• Music A system or an arrangement of seven tones built on a tonic key. (noun)
• Music The arrangement of all the tones and chords of a composition in relation to a tonic. (noun)
• The scheme or interrelation of the tones in a painting. (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.

• "All forms that we have ever known ... have always been conceived in tonality, that is, in the sense of a tonal magnetic center, with subsidiary tonal relationships."
• "My fingers seem to naturally fit into that five flat pattern, and the tonality is especially pleasing to me, rich and full, with just a hint of melancholy."
• "EMM has something similar, called tonality detection."