From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishtimbretim‧bre /ˈtæmbə, ˈtɪm- $ -ər/ noun [countable, uncountable] CS formal the quality of the sound made by a particular instrument or voice
Examples from the Corpus
timbre• His rich, dark timbre was chosen by 1,316 voters.• My voice must have produced the words in different timbre.• Much of the time, her voice is Strong and clear, changing in timbre and pitch to suit the meaning.• But her natural timbre, phrasing tendencies and intuitive inflections suggest the comparison.• Trumpet players in dance bands possess many different sorts of mutes with a corresponding number of resultant timbres.• It was interesting to note a complete change in the timbre and resonance when the bird moved to another song-perch.• He said he liked the timbre of my voice.• He could only really recapture the timbre if he had laryngitis when the time came for shooting.Origin timbre (1800-1900) French Old French, “drum, bell”, from Greek tympanon; → TIMPANI 