tonic: Meaning and Definition of

ton•ic

1. a medicine that invigorates or strengthens: a tonic of sulphur and molasses.
2. anything invigorating physically, mentally, or morally: His cheerful greeting was a real tonic.
3. See quinine water.
4. the first degree of the scale; the keynote.
5. soda pop.
6. a tonic syllable or accent.

1. pertaining to, maintaining, increasing, or restoring the tone or health of the body or an organ, as a medicine.
2. invigorating physically, mentally, or morally.
3. a tonic spasm.
1. pertaining to tension, as of the muscles.
2. marked by continued muscular tension:a tonic spasm.
4. using differences in tone or pitch to distinguish between words that are otherwise phonemically identical: a tonic language.
5. pertaining to tone or accent in speech.
6. (of a syllable) bearing the principal stress or accent, usually accompanied by a change in pitch.
7. a tonic chord.
1. of or pertaining to a tone or tones.
2. pertaining to or founded on the keynote, or first tone, of a musical scale:a tonic chord.

-tonic

1. a combining form occurring in adjectives that correspond to nouns ending in -tonia: catatonic.