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accent

Pronunciation: /ˈak.sənt/

The English word “accent” has 20 meanings listed here.

noun

  1. A higher-pitched or stronger (louder or longer) articulation of a particular syllable of a word or phrase in order to distinguish it from the others or to emphasize it.
  2. Emphasis or importance in general.
  3. A mark used in writing, in order to indicate the place of the spoken stress.
  4. Any mark used in writing over letters, either in order to indicate the place of the spoken stress, or to indicate the nature or quality of the vowel marked, or to distinguish homophones.
  5. Modulation of the voice in speaking; the manner of speaking or pronouncing; a peculiar or characteristic modification of the voice, expressing emotion; tone.
  6. The distinctive manner of pronouncing a language associated with a particular region, social group, etc., whether of a native speaker or a foreign speaker; the phonetic and phonological aspects of a dialect.
  7. A manner of pronunciation suggesting that the speaker is from a different region; a foreign accent.
  8. A distinctive manner of producing a sign language, such as someone who does not normally use a certain sign language might have when using it.
  9. A word; a significant tone or sound.
  10. Expressions in general; speech.
  11. Stress laid on certain syllables of a verse.
  12. A regularly recurring stress upon the tone to mark the beginning, and, more feebly, the third part of the measure.
  13. A special emphasis of a tone, even in the weaker part of the measure.
  14. A mark used to represent this special emphasis.
  15. The rhythmical accent, which marks phrases and sections of a period.
  16. A prime symbol.
  17. Emphasis laid on a part of an artistic design or composition; an emphasized detail, in particular a detail in sharp contrast to its surroundings.
  18. A very small gemstone set into a piece of jewellery.
  19. Utterance.

verb

  1. To express the accent of vocally; to utter with accent.

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English accent, from Medieval Latin accentus and Old French accent, acent, both from Latin accentus, past participle of accinō (“sing to, sing along”), from ad- + canō (“to sing”). The word accent had been borrowed into Old English already, but was lost and reborrowed in Middle English. Displaced native Old English swēġ.

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Definitions are from Wiktionary, extracted by Kaikki.org, and are available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.