 accent |
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| 1. | [ noun ] (linguistics) distinctive manner of oral expression | |
| Synonyms: | speech_pattern | |
| Examples: | "he couldn't suppress his contemptuous accent" "she had a very clear speech pattern" |
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| 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 | |
| Examples: | "This dress accentuates your nice figure!" "I set off these words by brackets" |
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| Related terms: | deemphasize change stress foreground pick_up raise background | |
| 3. | [ noun ] special importance or significance | |
| Synonyms: | emphasis | |
| Examples: | "the red light gave the central figure increased emphasis" "the room was decorated in shades of gray with distinctive red accents" |
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| Related terms: | importance stress stress | |
| 4. | [ noun ] (linguistics) the usage or vocabulary that is characteristic of a specific group of people | |
| Synonyms: | dialect idiom | |
| Examples: | "the immigrants spoke an odd dialect of English" "he has a strong German accent" |
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| 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 | |
| Examples: | "he put the stress on the wrong syllable" |
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| Related terms: | prosody sentence_stress tonic_accent accentuation word_stress stress | |
| 6. | [ verb ] put stress on; utter with an accent | |
| Synonyms: | stress accentuate | |
| Examples: | "In Farsi, you accent the last syllable of each word" |
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| Related terms: | pronounce stress dialect accentuation | |
| 7. | [ verb ] to stress, single out as important | |
| Synonyms: | stress emphasize accentuate emphasise punctuate | |
| Examples: | : "Dr. Jones emphasizes exercise in addition to a change in diet." |
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| 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 | |
| Synonyms: | accent_mark | |
| Related terms: | diacritical_mark acute_accent stress_mark grave_accent language | |
| Similar spelling: |
accentor accented accentual accenting acentric account acanthus ascent acned acanthous acanthoma acanthoid acanthion |
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