mod·u·late

(mŏj′ə-lāt′)

v. mod·u·lat·ed, mod·u·lat·ing, mod·u·lates

v.tr.

1. To regulate or adjust to a certain degree: physiological mechanisms that modulate the body's metabolic rate.

2. To change or vary the pitch, intensity, or tone of (one's voice or a musical instrument, for example).

3. Electronics

a. To vary the frequency, amplitude, phase, or other characteristic of (electromagnetic waves).

b. To vary (electron velocity) in an electron beam.

4. Biochemistry To act on (a receptor, for example) as an activator, an inhibitor, or both.

v.intr. Music

To move from one key or tonality to another by means of a melody or chord progression.

[Latin modulārī, modulāt-, to measure off, to regulate, from modulus, diminutive of modus, measure; see med- in Indo-European roots.]

mod′u·la·bil′i·ty n.

mod′u·la′tive, mod′u·la·to′ry (-lə-tôr′ē) adj.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

Adj.	1.	modulated - changed or adjusted in pitch, tone, or volume unmodulated - characterized by lack of variation in pitch, tone, or volume; "he lectured in an unmodulated voice edged with hysteria"
	2.	modulated - altered in volume as well as tone or pitch inflected - (of the voice) altered in tone or pitch; "his southern Yorkshire voice was less inflected and singing than her northern one"

Translations

modulato

modulated

[ˈmɒdjʊleɪtɪd] ADJ → modulado

Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

modulated

adj (beautifully) modulated (voice) → (harmonisch) ausgewogen

Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007

Mentioned in

References in classic literature

But now John put his hand into his pocket, brought out a whistle, and blew upon it several modulated blasts that rang far across the heated air.

View in context

We shuddered to think of Milly, with her voice modulated and her elbows covered, pouring tea in the marble teepee of a tree murderer.

View in context

For every one of those phrases he modulated under the fig-trees more sadly than the Lamentations of Jeremiah on Jeudi Saint overset me--was like death."

View in context

The orchestra played four of the pieces Michael had been taught by Steward, and Michael sang them, for his modulated howling was truly singing.

View in context

Beauty in tears is proverbially irresistible--and the youth, bending forward, said in a voice that was modulated to the stillness of the room--

View in context

Now the beautiful Eudosia--for beautiful, and even lovely, this glorious- looking creature was, in spite of a very badly modulated voice, certain inroads upon the fitness of things in the way of expression, and a want of a knowledge of the finesse of fine life--now the beautiful Eudosia had an intimate friend named Clara Caverly, who was as unlike her as possible, in character, education, habits, and appearance; and yet who was firmly her friend.

View in context

The former curves of sensuousness were now modulated to lines of devotional passion.

View in context

His full rich voice was not found to suffer by a comparison with the soft tones of the girls; and his more modulated strains possessed, at least for the ears of those to whom they were peculiarly addressed, the additional power of intelligence.

View in context

Sometimes it modulated into tones which reminded me of the severer harmonies of the old Gregorian chants.

View in context

There came to me in this case a melody which the air had strained, and which had conversed with every leaf and needle of the wood, that portion of the sound which the elements had taken up and modulated and echoed from vale to vale.

View in context

(when the animal spirits seemed utterly in abeyance) to that species of energetic concision--that abrupt, weighty, unhurried, and hollow-sounding enunciation--that leaden, self- balanced and perfectly modulated guttural utterance, which may be observed in the lost drunkard, or the irreclaimable eater of opium, during the periods of his most intense excitement.

View in context

de Bellegarde with the modulated smoothness of the man of the world, and in spite of his excellent English, of the Frenchman; but Newman, at the same time that he sat noting its harmonious flow, perceived that it was not mere mechanical urbanity.

View in context