accent

I. transitive verb Etymology: Middle French accenter, from accent intonation, from Latin accentus, from ad- + cantus song — more at chant Date: 1530 1. a. to pronounce with accent ; stress b. to mark with a written or printed accent 2. to give prominence to ; make more prominent II. noun Date: 1530 1. an articulative effort giving prominence to one syllable over adjacent syllables; also the prominence thus given a syllable 2. a distinctive manner of expression: as a. an individual's distinctive or characteristic inflection, tone, or choice of words — usually used in plural b. a way of speaking typical of a particular group of people and especially of the natives or residents of a region 3. rhythmically significant stress on the syllables of a verse usually at regular intervals 4. archaic utterance 5. a. a mark (as ˊ, ˋ, ˆ) used in writing or printing to indicate a specific sound value, stress, or pitch, to distinguish words otherwise identically spelled, or to indicate that an ordinarily mute vowel should be pronounced b. an accented letter 6. a. greater stress given to one musical tone than to its neighbors b. accent mark 2 7. a. emphasis laid on a part of an artistic design or composition b. an emphasized detail or area; especially a small detail in sharp contrast with its surroundings c. a substance or object used for emphasis 8. a mark placed to the right of a letter or number and usually slightly above it: as a. a double prime b. prime 9. special concern or attention ; emphasis <

an accent on youth

> • accentless adjective