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Meaning of ACCENT

Pronunciation:  [n]'aksent, [v]ak'sent, 'ak`sent

WordNet Dictionary
 
 Definition: 
  1. [n]  distinctive manner of oral expression; "he couldn't suppress his contemptuous accent"; "she had a very clear speech pattern"
  2. [n]  a diacritical mark used to indicate stress or (in some languages) placed above a vowel to indicate a special pronunciation
  3. [n]  the relative prominence of a syllable or musical note (especially with regard to stress or pitch); "he put the stress on the wrong syllable"
  4. [n]  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"
  5. [n]  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"
  6. [v]  put stress on; utter with an accent; "In Farsi, you accent the last syllable of each word"
  7. [v]  to stress, single out as important; "Dr. Jones emphasizes exercise in addition to a change in diet."
 
 Websites: 
 
 Synonyms: accent mark, accentuate, dialect, emphasis, emphasis, emphasise, emphasize, idiom, punctuate, speech pattern, stress, stress
 
 See Also: accentuation, acute, acute accent, ague, articulate, background, bear down, bring out, diacritic, diacritical mark, downplay, drawl, drive home, enounce, enunciate, evince, express, focus, grandness, grave, grave accent, importance, inflection, non-standard speech, patois, pitch accent, play down, point up, press home, pronounce, pronunciation, prosody, ram home, re-emphasise, re-emphasize, say, sentence stress, set off, show, sound out, stress, stress mark, tonic accent, underline, underscore, word accent, word stress

 

 

Webster's 1913 Dictionary
 
 Definition: 
  1. \Ac"cent`\, n. [F. accent, L. accentus; ad + cantus a
    singing, canere to sing. See {Cant}.]
    1. A superior force of voice or of articulative effort upon
       some particular syllable of a word or a phrase,
       distinguishing it from the others.
    Note: Many English words have two accents, the primary and
          the secondary; the primary being uttered with a greater
          stress of voice than the secondary; as in as'pira"tion,
          where the chief stress is on the third syllable, and a
          slighter stress on the first. Some words, as
          an'tiap'o-plec"tic, in-com'pre-hen'si-bil"i-ty, have
          two secondary accents. See Guide to Pron., [th][th]
          30-46.
    2. A mark or character used in writing, and serving to
       regulate the pronunciation; esp.:
       (a) a mark to indicate the nature and place of the spoken
           accent;
       (b) a mark to indicate the quality of sound of the vowel
           marked; as, the French accents.
    Note: In the ancient Greek the acute accent (') meant a
          raised tone or pitch, the grave (`), the level tone or
          simply the negation of accent, the circumflex ( ~ or ^)
          a tone raised and then depressed. In works on
          elocution, the first is often used to denote the rising
          inflection of the voice; the second, the falling
          inflection; and the third (^), the compound or waving
          inflection. In dictionaries, spelling books, and the
          like, the acute accent is used to designate the
          syllable which receives the chief stress of voice.
    3. Modulation of the voice in speaking; manner of speaking or
       pronouncing; peculiar or characteristic modification of
       the voice; tone; as, a foreign accent; a French or a
       German accent. ``Beguiled you in a plain accent.'' --Shak.
       ``A perfect accent.'' --Thackeray.
             The tender accent of a woman's cry.   --Prior.
    4. A word; a significant tone; (pl.) expressions in general;
       speech.
             Winds! on your wings to Heaven her accents bear,
             Such words as Heaven alone is fit to hear. --Dryden.
    5. (Pros.) Stress laid on certain syllables of a verse.
    6. (Mus.)
       (a) A regularly recurring stress upon the tone to mark the
           beginning, and, more feebly, the third part of the
           measure.
       (b) A special emphasis of a tone, even in the weaker part
           of the measure.
       (c) The rhythmical accent, which marks phrases and
           sections of a period.
       (d) The expressive emphasis and shading of a passage. --J.
           S. Dwight.
    7. (Math.)
       (a) A mark placed at the right hand of a letter, and a
           little above it, to distinguish magnitudes of a
           similar kind expressed by the same letter, but
           differing in value, as y', y[sec].
       (b) (Trigon.) A mark at the right hand of a number,
           indicating minutes of a degree, seconds, etc.; as,
           12'27[sec], i. e., twelve minutes twenty seven
           seconds.
       (c) (Engin.) A mark used to denote feet and inches; as, 6'
           10[sec] is six feet ten inches.
    
  2. \Ac*cent"\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Accented}; p. pr. & vb.
    n. {Accenting}.] [OF. accenter, F. accentuer.]
    1. To express the accent of (either by the voice or by a
       mark); to utter or to mark with accent.
    2. To mark emphatically; to emphasize.
    
 
Computing Dictionary
 
 Definition: 

A very high level interpreted language from CaseWare, Inc. with strings and tables. It is strongly typed and has remote function calls.

 
Thesaurus Terms
 
 Related Terms: accent mark, accents, accentuate, accentuation, Alexandrine, amphibrach, amphimacer, anacrusis, anapest, antispast, arsis, articulation, bacchius, bar, beat, belabor, broad accent, brogue, burr, cadence, caesura, cancel, catalexis, character, chatter, chloriamb, chloriambus, colon, comment, concern, concernment, consequence, consequentiality, consideration, conversation, counterpoint, cretic, custos, dactyl, dactylic hexameter, diacritical mark, diaeresis, dimeter, dipody, direct, discourse, distinguish, dochmiac, dot, drawl, dwell on, elegiac, elegiac couplet, elegiac pentameter, elocution, emphasis, emphasize, epitrite, excellence, expression mark, feminine caesura, fermata, foot, force, gab, give emphasis to, grammatical accent, harp on, heptameter, heptapody, heroic couplet, hexameter, hexapody, high order, high rank, highlight, hold, iamb, iambic, iambic pentameter, ictus, import, importance, inflection, intensity, interest, intonation, intonation pattern, ionic, italicize, jingle, key signature, lead, level of stress, ligature, lilt, mark, masculine caesura, materiality, measure, merit, meter, metrical accent, metrical foot, metrical group, metrical unit, metrics, metron, metronomic mark, molossus, moment, mora, movement, notation, note, numbers, oral communication, overaccentuate, overemphasize, overstress, paeon, palaver, paramountcy, parole, pause, pentameter, pentapody, period, pitch accent, place emphasis on, point up, prattle, precedence, preeminence, presa, primacy, primary stress, priority, proceleusmatic, prominence, pronunciation, prosodics, prosody, pulsation, pulse, punctuate, pyrrhic, quantity, rapping, regional accent, rhetorical accent, rhythm, rhythmic pattern, rhythmical accent, rhythmical stress, rub in, secondary stress, segno, self-importance, set apart, set off, sign, signature, significance, slur, speaking, speech, spondee, spotlight, sprung rhythm, star, stress, stress accent, stress arsis, stress pattern, superiority, supremacy, swell, swing, symbol, syzygy, talk, talking, tempo mark, tertiary stress, tetrameter, tetrapody, tetraseme, thesis, throb, tie, time signature, tone, tone accent, tribrach, trimeter, tripody, triseme, trochee, twang, underline, underscore, value, vinculum, weak stress, weight, words, worth, yakkety-yak, yakking
 

 

 

 

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