tin ear

1. 1.

   an inability to distinguish differences in pitch

   Synonymstone deafness

   Broaderdeafness
2. 2.

   insensitivity to the appropriateness or subtlety of language

   “he has a tin ear for dialogue”

   Broaderinsensitivity

Questions about tin ear

What does tin ear mean?

tin ear means "an inability to distinguish differences in pitch". That is the primary sense; the word has 2 in total, listed in full on this page.

What is another word for tin ear?

Close synonyms include tone deafness. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is tin ear a common word?

tin ear is banded "Uncommon" — turns up in careful writing rather than conversation. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.