tone-setter

noun

: a person or thing that determines or establishes a quality, feeling, or attitude
I like to use the joke as a tone-setter for my speeches.

Examples of tone-setter in a Sentence

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Senior shooting guard Alijah Martin, the tone-setter for a defense ranked 11th in efficiency by KenPom, was left off the coaches’ All-All-Defensive team. — Edgar Thompson, Orlando Sentinel, 12 Mar. 2025 Crosby was a tone-setter at 4 Nations, both on the ice and off it, despite playing through injury and being the oldest skater in a tournament played at warp speed. — Arpon Basu, The Athletic, 21 Feb. 2025

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“Tone-setter.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/tone-setter. Accessed 26 Mar. 2025.

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