as in tuneless
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Recent Examples of off-key
And broadcasting your irritation too loudly risks ruining the atmosphere for everyone else just as much as their yelling or off-key chants.
—
Mary Catherine McAnnally Scott, Southern Living, 6 Sep. 2025
Yet in subsequent editions, the Muirs, or perhaps their publishers, rejected that suitably plain title and replaced it with the storied but off-key Metamorphosis.
—Mark Harman
august 8, Literary Hub, 8 Aug. 2025
Mary Catherine McAnnally Scott, Southern Living, 6 Sep. 2025
Yet in subsequent editions, the Muirs, or perhaps their publishers, rejected that suitably plain title and replaced it with the storied but off-key Metamorphosis.
—Mark Harman
august 8, Literary Hub, 8 Aug. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for off-key
Adjective
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Her aesthetics and tuneless vocals left audiences in awe and laughter.—
Raquel Willis,
Time,
19 June 2025
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For the rest of us, a real musical comedy is a cause for celebration; most are either too tuneless to be musicals or too dull to be comedies.—
Jesse Green,
New York Times,
11 Apr. 2025
Adjective
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Other cuts start as pop songs before crashing into atonal messes and freak rock chaos.—
Jed Gottlieb,
Boston Herald,
13 Sep. 2025
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Riley, a Northern California native, who has always exuded a Zen-like geniality, was part of a generation of young American composers who had turned away from audience-alienating atonal music, which had been proselytized by their teachers in the science-minded postwar academy.—
William Robin,
New Yorker,
26 Aug. 2025
Adjective
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Increase your fiber intake slowly and drink plenty of water to reduce unpleasant side effects like cramping and bloating.—
Courtney Southwick,
Health,
8 Sep. 2025
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Any unpleasant government decision—such as the August order blocking voice calls on WhatsApp and Telegram, on the pretext of preventing scams and terrorist activity—tends to be perceived mostly with passive discontent and immediate adaptation with the search for alternative practical solutions.—
ANDREI KOLESNIKOV,
Foreign Affairs,
8 Sep. 2025
Adjective
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Over the weekend, reports emerged that the higher tariffs followed a disagreeable Thursday phone call between Swiss President Karin Keller-Sutter and Trump — which Swiss officials rejected, according to Reuters.—
Sophie Kiderlin,Jenni Reid,
CNBC,
4 Aug. 2025
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Trump and his supporters prefer a happy history, a pleasant history that arouses patriotism by overlooking disagreeable people and despicable events that sully the nation’s reputation and mar the magnificence of the American story.—
William C. Hine,
Twin Cities,
23 July 2025
Cite this Entry
“Off-key.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/off-key. Accessed 17 Sep. 2025.
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