0 [ usually plural ] a feeling or message that is suggested but not directly shown or spoken -- undertone [ masculine ]
Likewise, the ' illustrious ladies ' genre could carry political overtones.
The desire to see beauty, convenience, and harmonic proportion in the universe had clear religious overtones.
At the same time the tuna sandwich was a cultural artifact with evocative overtones of gender distinction.
They likewise acquired distinctively civic overtones as cathedral clerics employed them in honour of local patron saints.
Words with ideological overtones undoubtedly indicate that the participant is conversant with politics, but it does not mean that he adheres to a fully-fledged ideology.
The fact that these overtones contribute to the propositions expressed in the above examples, does not entail that they are encoded.
More difficult concepts with subjective overtones can be illuminated with the spotlight of science fiction.
As a word, it implies a subjective/distorted view with clear psychological overtones, although its meaning has been open to varied interpretation.
