harmonics Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun the study of musical sound
  2. noun a tone that is a component of a complex sound
    harmonic.
  3. noun any of a series of musical tones whose frequencies are integral multiples of the frequency of a fundamental
    harmonic.

WordNet


Har*mon"ics noun
Definitions
  1. The doctrine or science of musical sounds.
  2. pl. (Mus.) Secondary and less distinct tones which accompany any principal, and apparently simple, tone, as the octave, the twelfth, the fifteenth, and the seventeenth. The name is also applied to the artificial tones produced by a string or column of air, when the impulse given to it suffices only to make a part of the string or column vibrate; overtones.

Webster 1913