|1.||[ noun ] (linguistics) distinctive manner of oral expression|
"he couldn't suppress his contemptuous accent" "she had a very clear speech pattern"
|Related terms:||pronunciation pronunciation drawl stress|
|2.||[ verb ] direct attention to, as if by means of contrast|
|Synonyms:||emphasize accentuate stress set_off bring_out|
"This dress accentuates your nice figure!" "I set off these words by brackets"
|Related terms:||deemphasize change stress foreground pick_up raise background|
|3.||[ noun ] special importance or significance|
"the red light gave the central figure increased emphasis" "the room was decorated in shades of gray with distinctive red accents"
|Related terms:||importance stress stress|
|4.||[ noun ] (linguistics) the usage or vocabulary that is characteristic of a specific group of people|
"the immigrants spoke an odd dialect of English" "he has a strong German accent"
|Related terms:||non-standard_speech patois eye_dialect forward spang euphonious stress|
|5.||[ noun ] (rhetoric) the relative prominence of a syllable or musical note (especially with regard to stress or pitch)|
|Synonyms:||stress accentuation emphasis|
"he put the stress on the wrong syllable"
|Related terms:||prosody sentence_stress tonic_accent accentuation word_stress stress|
|6.||[ verb ] put stress on; utter with an accent|
"In Farsi, you accent the last syllable of each word"
|Related terms:||pronounce stress dialect accentuation|
|7.||[ verb ] to stress, single out as important|
|Synonyms:||stress emphasize accentuate emphasise punctuate|
: "Dr. Jones emphasizes exercise in addition to a change in diet."
|Related terms:||express emphasize underscore point_up re-emphasise topicalize bear_down background drive_home emphasis stress emphasizing|
|8.||[ noun ] a diacritical mark used to indicate stress or (in some languages) placed above a vowel to indicate a special pronunciation|
|Related terms:||diacritical_mark acute_accent stress_mark grave_accent language|