"tone terracing" meaning in English

{
  "etymology_text": "A graph of the change in pitch over time of a particular tone resembles a terrace.",
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "-"
      },
      "expansion": "tone terracing (uncountable)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
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          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "topical",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Phonetics",
          "orig": "en:Phonetics",
          "parents": [
            "Linguistics",
            "Language",
            "Social sciences",
            "Communication",
            "Sciences",
            "Society",
            "All topics",
            "Fundamental"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A form of downdrift in which the high or mid tones, but not the low tone, shift downward in pitch after certain other tones. The result is that a tone may be realized at a certain pitch over a short stretch of speech, shifts downward and then continues at its new level, then shifts downward again, until the end of the prosodic contour is reached, at which point the pitch resets."
      ],
      "id": "en-tone_terracing-en-noun-A3~ixRjQ",
      "links": [
        [
          "phonetics",
          "phonetics"
        ],
        [
          "downdrift",
          "downdrift"
        ],
        [
          "shift",
          "shift"
        ],
        [
          "downward",
          "downward"
        ],
        [
          "pitch",
          "pitch"
        ],
        [
          "prosodic",
          "prosodic"
        ],
        [
          "contour",
          "contour"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(phonetics) A form of downdrift in which the high or mid tones, but not the low tone, shift downward in pitch after certain other tones. The result is that a tone may be realized at a certain pitch over a short stretch of speech, shifts downward and then continues at its new level, then shifts downward again, until the end of the prosodic contour is reached, at which point the pitch resets."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "uncountable"
      ],
      "topics": [
        "human-sciences",
        "linguistics",
        "phonetics",
        "phonology",
        "sciences"
      ],
      "wikipedia": [
        "tone terracing"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "tone terracing"
}

{
  "etymology_text": "A graph of the change in pitch over time of a particular tone resembles a terrace.",
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "-"
      },
      "expansion": "tone terracing (uncountable)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English nouns",
        "English uncountable nouns",
        "Pages with 1 entry",
        "Pages with entries",
        "en:Phonetics"
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A form of downdrift in which the high or mid tones, but not the low tone, shift downward in pitch after certain other tones. The result is that a tone may be realized at a certain pitch over a short stretch of speech, shifts downward and then continues at its new level, then shifts downward again, until the end of the prosodic contour is reached, at which point the pitch resets."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "phonetics",
          "phonetics"
        ],
        [
          "downdrift",
          "downdrift"
        ],
        [
          "shift",
          "shift"
        ],
        [
          "downward",
          "downward"
        ],
        [
          "pitch",
          "pitch"
        ],
        [
          "prosodic",
          "prosodic"
        ],
        [
          "contour",
          "contour"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(phonetics) A form of downdrift in which the high or mid tones, but not the low tone, shift downward in pitch after certain other tones. The result is that a tone may be realized at a certain pitch over a short stretch of speech, shifts downward and then continues at its new level, then shifts downward again, until the end of the prosodic contour is reached, at which point the pitch resets."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "uncountable"
      ],
      "topics": [
        "human-sciences",
        "linguistics",
        "phonetics",
        "phonology",
        "sciences"
      ],
      "wikipedia": [
        "tone terracing"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "tone terracing"
}