ACCENT

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does accent mean? 

• ACCENT (noun)
  The noun ACCENT has 5 senses:

1. distinctive manner of oral expression

2. special importance or significance

3. the usage or vocabulary that is characteristic of a specific group of people

4. the relative prominence of a syllable or musical note (especially with regard to stress or pitch)

5. a diacritical mark used to indicate stress or placed above a vowel to indicate a special pronunciation

  Familiarity information: ACCENT used as a noun is common.

• ACCENT (verb)
  The verb ACCENT has 2 senses:

1. to stress, single out as important

2. put stress on; utter with an accent

  Familiarity information: ACCENT used as a verb is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• ACCENT (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Distinctive manner of oral expression

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Synonyms:

accent; speech pattern

Context example:

she had a very clear speech pattern

Hypernyms ("accent" is a kind of...):

pronunciation (the manner in which someone utters a word)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "accent"):

drawl (a slow speech pattern with prolonged vowels)

Derivation:

accentuate (put stress on; utter with an accent)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Special importance or significance

Classified under:

Nouns denoting stable states of affairs

Synonyms:

accent; emphasis

Context example:

the room was decorated in shades of grey with distinctive red accents

Hypernyms ("accent" is a kind of...):

grandness; importance (a prominent status)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "accent"):

focus; stress (special emphasis attached to something)

Derivation:

accent; accentuate (to stress, single out as important)

Sense 3

Meaning:

The usage or vocabulary that is characteristic of a specific group of people

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Synonyms:

accent; dialect; idiom

Context example:

it has been said that a language is a dialect with an army and navy

Hypernyms ("accent" is a kind of...):

non-standard speech (speech that differs from the usual accepted, easily recognizable speech of native adult members of a speech community)

Domain member usage:

bang; spang (leap, jerk, bang)

forrad; forrard; forward; forwards; frontward; frontwards (at or to or toward the front)

euphonious ((of speech or dialect) pleasing in sound; not harsh or strident)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "accent"):

patois (a regional dialect of a language (especially French); usually considered substandard)

eye dialect (the use of misspellings to identify a colloquial or uneducated speaker)

Derivation:

accentuate (put stress on; utter with an accent)

Sense 4

Meaning:

The relative prominence of a syllable or musical note (especially with regard to stress or pitch)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Synonyms:

accent; emphasis; stress

Context example:

he put the stress on the wrong syllable

Hypernyms ("accent" is a kind of...):

inflection; prosody (the patterns of stress and intonation in a language)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "accent"):

accentuation (the use or application of an accent; the relative prominence of syllables in a phrase or utterance)

pitch accent; tonic accent (emphasis that results from pitch rather than loudness)

word accent; word stress (the distribution of stresses within a polysyllabic word)

sentence stress (the distribution of stresses within a sentence)

Derivation:

accent (put stress on; utter with an accent)

accentual ((of verse) having a metric system based on stress rather than syllables or quantity)

accentual (of or pertaining to accent or stress)

accentuate (put stress on; utter with an accent)

Sense 5

Meaning:

A diacritical mark used to indicate stress or placed above a vowel to indicate a special pronunciation

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Synonyms:

accent; accent mark

Hypernyms ("accent" is a kind of...):

diacritic; diacritical mark (a mark added to a letter to indicate a special pronunciation)

Domain category:

language; linguistic communication (a systematic means of communicating by the use of sounds or conventional symbols)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "accent"):

acute; acute accent; ague (a mark placed above a vowel to indicate pronunciation)

grave; grave accent (a mark (') placed above a vowel to indicate pronunciation)

stress mark (a mark indicating the stress on a syllable)

Derivation:

accentual (of or pertaining to accent or stress)

accentuate (put stress on; utter with an accent)

• ACCENT (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they accent ... he / she / it accents
Past simple: accented   
Past participle: accented   
-ing form: accenting   

Sense 1

Meaning:

To stress, single out as important

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

Synonyms:

accent; accentuate; emphasise; emphasize; punctuate; stress

Context example:

Dr. Jones emphasizes exercise in addition to a change in diet

Hypernyms (to "accent" is one way to...):

evince; express; show (give expression to)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "accent"):

background; downplay; play down (understate the importance or quality of)

bring out; set off (direct attention to, as if by means of contrast)

re-emphasise; re-emphasize (emphasize anew)

bear down (pay special attention to)

topicalize (emphasize by putting heavy stress on or by moving to the front of the sentence)

point up (emphasize, especially by identification)

drive home; press home; ram home (make clear by special emphasis and try to convince somebody of something)

emphasise; emphasize; underline; underscore (give extra weight to (a communication))

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Something ----s something
Somebody ----s that CLAUSE

Derivation:

accent (special importance or significance)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Put stress on; utter with an accent

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

Synonyms:

accent; accentuate; stress

Context example:

In Farsi, you accent the last syllable of each word

Hypernyms (to "accent" is one way to...):

articulate; enounce; enunciate; pronounce; say; sound out (speak, pronounce, or utter in a certain way)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Derivation:

accent (the relative prominence of a syllable or musical note (especially with regard to stress or pitch))

 Context examples 

"Well, Mr. Malone, from all I hear, you seem to be doing very well," said he in his kindly Scotch accent.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

You no doubt were, at that hour, in unconscious sleep, Jane: perhaps your soul wandered from its cell to comfort mine; for those were your accents—as certain as I live—they were yours!

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

The entire New Year of 2020 will accent these topics too, but this month and January will be extraordinary.

(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)

"You are not made wise by experience, I hope?" and there was an anxious accent in Meg's voice.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

On perceiving me, the stranger addressed me in English, although with a foreign accent.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

Not rhythmic pulse irregular in beat or accent.

(Irregular Pulse, NCI Thesaurus)

The end of each movement was the accent of the rhythm, the movement ending abruptly and the growling rising with a jerk.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

‘What may you be wantin’?’ she asked, in a Northern accent.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

"Oh," she said, this time with an accent of comprehension, though secretly his speech had been so much Greek to her and she was wondering what a lift was and what swatted meant.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

I then put myself in the most supplicating posture, and spoke in the humblest accent, but received no answer.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)