TAUTOMERISM n.
The condition, quality, or relation of metameric substances, or their respective derivatives, which are more or less interchangeable, according as one form or the other is the more stable. It is a special case of metamerism; thus, the lactam and the lactim compounds exhibit tautomerism.
TEMPERAMENT n.
individual, in olden times erroneously supposed to be due to individual variation in the relations and proportions of the constituent parts of the body, especially of the fluids, as the bile, blood, lymph, etc. Hence the phrases, bilious or choleric temperament, sanguine temperament, etc., implying a predominance of o…
TENUIS n.
One of the three surd mutes k, p, t; -- so called in relation to their respective middle letters, or medials, g, b, d, and their aspirates, x, f, th. The term is also applied to the corresponding letters and articulate elements in other languages.
TERM n.
A word or expression; specifically, one that has a precisely limited meaning in certain relations and uses, or is peculiar to a science, art, profession, or the like; as, a technical term. "Terms quaint of law." Chaucer. In painting, the greatest beauties can not always be expressed for want of terms. Dryden.…
TERNARY a.
elements, atoms, groups, or radicals, which are regarded as having different functions or relations in the molecule; thus, sodic hydroxide, NaOH, is a ternary compound.
THERE adv.
In that matter, relation, etc.; at that point, stage, etc., regarded as a distinct place; as, he did not stop there, but continued his speech. The law that theaten'd death becomes thy friend And turns it to exile; there art thou happy. Shak.
TONALITY n.
hich a composition has by virtue of the key in which it is written, or through the family relationship of all its tones and chords to the keynote, or tonic, of the whole. The predominance of the tonic as the link which connects all the tones of a piece, we may, with Fétis, term the principle of tonality. Helmholtz.…
TONIC n.
of the most popular among letter systems of notation (at least in England), based on key relationship, and hence called "tonic." Instead of the five lines, clefs, signature, etc., of the usual notation, it employs letters and the syllables do, re, mi, etc., variously modified, with other simple signs of duration, of u…
TRILOGY n.
f three dramas which, although each of them is in one sense complete, have a close mutual relation, and form one historical and poetical picture. Shakespeare's " Henry VI." is an example. On the Greek stage, a drama, or acted story, consisted in reality of three dramas, called together a trilogy, and performed consecut…