EMPHASIS (emphases)

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

Irregular inflected form: emphases   

 Dictionary entry overview: What does emphasis mean? 

• EMPHASIS (noun)
  The noun EMPHASIS has 4 senses:

1. special importance or significance

2. intensity or forcefulness of expression

3. special and significant stress by means of position or repetition e.g.

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

  Familiarity information: EMPHASIS used as a noun is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• EMPHASIS (noun)

Sense 1

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 ("emphasis" is a kind of...):

grandness; importance (a prominent status)

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

focus; stress (special emphasis attached to something)

Derivation:

emphasize (to stress, single out as important)

emphatic (forceful and definite in expression or action)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Intensity or forcefulness of expression

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Synonyms:

emphasis; vehemence

Context example:

his emphasis on civil rights

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

intensity; intensiveness (high level or degree; the property of being intense)

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

overemphasis (too much emphasis)

Derivation:

emphatic (forceful and definite in expression or action)

emphatic (spoken with emphasis)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Special and significant stress by means of position or repetition e.g.

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

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

rhetorical device (a use of language that creates a literary effect (but often without regard for literal significance))

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

topicalization ((linguistics) emphasis placed on the topic or focus of a sentence by preposing it to the beginning of the sentence; placing the topic at the beginning of the sentence is typical for English)

Derivation:

emphatic (forceful and definite in expression or action)

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 ("emphasis" is a kind of...):

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

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

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:

emphatic (sudden and strong)

emphatic (spoken with emphasis)

 Context examples 

If you love your house as it is, then all this emphasis and luck with home-related matters may relate to your family.

(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)

“He has been so unlucky as to lose your friendship,” replied Elizabeth with emphasis, “and in a manner which he is likely to suffer from all his life.”

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

Nursing care with a special emphasis on the care of individuals with orthopaedic-related injuries, diseases, and diagnoses.

(Orthopedic Nursing, NCI Thesaurus)

These emphasis areas are developed jointly with the scientific, medical, and public health communities.

(NIH Emphasis Area, NCI Thesaurus)

A branch of biology which deals with parasitic organisms with a strong emphasis on their role in disease.

(Parasitology, NCI Thesaurus)

Patient-Focused Outcomes places a greater emphasis on quality of life issues.

(Patient-Focused Outcomes, NCI Thesaurus)

A clinicopathological staging system for neuroblastoma, which places emphasis on the presence or absence of regional lymph node involvement by tumor.

(Pediatric Oncology Group Neuroblastoma Staging System, NCI Thesaurus)

N.D. has a qualification of primary care physicians with a specialized focus in preventative medicine, natural therapeutics, and emphasis on holistic and nontoxic approaches to therapy and optimizing wellness.

(Naturopathic Doctor, NCI Thesaurus)

Prior carbon storage efforts have placed emphasis on avoiding deforestation.

(Natural regeneration of tropical forests helps global climate mitigation and forest restoration, NSF)

This HIV initiative will create a center for retrovirology research, with emphasis on basic and translational research related to viral evolution and resistance biology.

(HIV Drug Resistance Program, NCI Thesaurus)