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accent - Wiktionary, the free dictionary

  • ️Mon Dec 19 2022

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

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”). The word accent had been borrowed into Old English already, but was lost and reborrowed in Middle English.

accent (countable and uncountable, plural accents)

  1. (linguistics) 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.
    Synonym: stress
    Hyponyms: stress, stress accent, pitch, pitch accent

    In the word "careful", the accent is placed on the first syllable.

  2. (figuratively) Emphasis or importance in general.

    At this hotel, the accent is on luxury.

  3. (orthography) A mark or character used in writing, in order to indicate the place of the spoken accent, or to indicate the nature or quality of the vowel marked.

    The name Cézanne is written with an acute accent.

  5. Modulation of the voice in speaking; the manner of speaking or pronouncing; a peculiar or characteristic modification of the voice, expressing emotion; tone.

    • c. 1603–1606, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of King Lear”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene ii]:

      I know, sir, I am no flatterer: he that beguiled you in a plain accent was a plain knave; which for my part I will not be, though I should win your displeasure to entreat me to 't.

    • 1696, Matthew Prior, “From Celia to Damon”, in Poems on Several Occasions:

      The tender Accent of a Woman's Cry / Will pass unheard, will unregarded die;

    • 1815, Jane Austen, Emma, volume I, chapter 15:

      And he repeated her words with such assurance of accent, such boastful pretence of amazement, that she could not help replying with quickness …

    • 1981 December 27, Rudy Kikel, “Still Angry, After All These Years”, in Gay Community News, volume 9, number 23, page 10:

      Edmund White, John Mitzel, and David Goodstein, among others, have taken pains to distinguish two kinds of "liberation" envisioned by the members of our recently emerged movement: assimilation into the body politic — or a total restructuring of the sex-role system. The second path amounts to revolutionary subversion, but we hear little about it here, except in the accents of reproach: to the idea that gay people might be "pioneers in the area of relationship" and that "our greatest offering to civilization is the beauty of sexual freedom," McNaught responds: "Bunk!"

  7. (linguistics, sociolinguistics) 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.

    a foreign accent

    a broad Irish accent

    a hint of a German accent

    1. (informal, sometimes proscribed) A manner of pronunciation suggesting that the speaker is from a different region; a foreign accent.

      My professor's accent is so thick that it's difficult to understand her lectures.

      She spoke with a strong accent that betrayed her southern roots.

      I was surprised to learn that he was an immigrant, as he spoke without any accent.

      • 2015 November 14, Adam Gopnik, quoting Célia, “Terror Strikes in Paris”, in The New Yorker‎[1], archived from the original on 2022-12-19:

        They were all Middle Eastern types but spoke French without any accent.

      • 2016 June 8, Tyler Mears, “I used to hide my Valleys accent in case people thought I was less intelligent - which was completely stupid”, in WalesOnline‎[2], archived from the original on 2023-01-10:

        Growing up in the Rhondda and having a strong accent was never a problem for me and my voice never really stood out from the crowd.

      • 2018 January 24, Lakshine Sathiyanathan, Lisa Xing, quoting Mariya Miloshevych, “Why some people try to chip away at their accent”, in CBC News‎[3], archived from the original on 2022-12-09:

        It's really hard to get in an audition room when you have an accent. Rather than being treated as the other people, you are falling into a category of foreigners who can't really maintain the role.

      • 2020 December 30, Christi Carras, quoting Rishi Maharaj, “'Schitt's Creek' star Rizwan Manji defends his character's Indian accent”, in Los Angeles Times‎[4], archived from the original on 2022-12-09:

        Why go to the effort of writing in a character with an Indian name played by an Indian actor whose main personality trait is that he is stupid and has an accent?

      • 2022 March 22, Elise Hu, Jinae West, Jordana Hochman, Andrea Gutierrez, “Rejecting assimilation in 'You Sound Like a White Girl'”, in NPR‎[5], archived from the original on 2022-12-09:

        But over the years, even after perfecting "accent-less" English, graduating from college, getting a job at Goldman Sachs, and becoming an American citizen, Arce still felt like she didn't belong.

    2. (sign languages) 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.

      • 2008, Jeremy Linn Brunson, The Practice and Organization of Sign Language, page 76:

        I believe I still retain some of my hearing accent when I use American Sign Language.

      • 2015 November 5, Nina Porzucki, The World‎[6], archived from the original on 2022-12-07:

        Cheesesteaks, Peanut Chews, Tastykakes, oh yeah, the Liberty Bell — there's so much to love about Philadelphia, but one of the best things about the city of Brotherly Love is the accent. We're not talking about spoken English — we're talking about American Sign Language.

  8. A word; a significant tone or sound.
  9. (usually plural only) Expressions in general; speech.

    • 1697, Virgil, “Pastoral 3”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC:

      Winds! on your wings to Heaven her accents bear, / Such words as Heaven alone is fit to hear.

  10. (prosody, poetry) Stress laid on certain syllables of a verse.
  11. (music) A regularly recurring stress upon the tone to mark the beginning, and, more feebly, the third part of the measure.
  12. (music) A special emphasis of a tone, even in the weaker part of the measure.
  13. (music) A mark used to represent this special emphasis.
    The third and fourth symbols are accents (marks used to represent special emphasis in music).
  14. (music) The rhythmical accent, which marks phrases and sections of a period.
  15. (mathematics) A prime symbol.
  16. Emphasis laid on a part of an artistic design or composition; an emphasized detail, in particular a detail in sharp contrast to its surroundings.

    accent color

  17. A very small gemstone set into a piece of jewellery.
  18. (archaic) Utterance.

The word "accent" is often used specifically to refer to manners of speech that differ significantly from the local standard or one's personal speech.

higher-pitched or stronger articulation

emphasis or importance in general

orthography: mark to indicate accent

modulation of the voice in speaking

distinctive manner of producing a sign language

prosody: stress on syllables of a verse

music: recurring stress on a tone

music: special emphasis on a tone

music: rhythmical accent

music: expressive emphasis of a passage

music: mark to represent specific stress on a note

geometry: mark indicating minutes and seconds of a degree

very small gemstone set into a piece of jewellery

  • Chinese:
    Mandarin: please add this translation if you can

distinctive feature or quality

From Middle French accenter, from Old French accenter, from Latin accentō, from accentus.

accent (third-person singular simple present accents, present participle accenting, simple past and past participle accented)

  1. (transitive) To express the accent of vocally; to utter with accent.
  2. (transitive) To mark emphatically; to emphasize; to accentuate; to make prominent.
  3. (transitive) To mark with written accents.

to emphasize

Borrowed from Latin accentus.

accent m (plural accents)

  1. accent
  2. (phonology) stress
  3. (often plural) tone, sound

From French accent, from Latin accentus, a calque of Ancient Greek προσῳδία (prosōidía, “prosody, accent”).

accent c (singular definite accenten, plural indefinite accenter)

  1. accent (a voice influenced by dialect or another language)
  2. accent (a mark on a letter (like grave or acute))

From Latin accentus, a calque of Ancient Greek προσῳδία (prosōidía, “prosody, accent”).

accent c (singular definite accenten, plural indefinite accenter)

  1. (linguistics) accent (stress or a pitch in articulation)
  2. accent (emphasis)
  3. accent (a mark on a letter (like grave or acute))

From Middle Dutch accent, ultimately from Latin accentus.

  • IPA(key): /ɑkˈsɛnt/
  • Hyphenation: ac‧cent
  • Rhymes: -ɛnt

accent n (plural accenten, diminutive accentje n)

  1. (linguistics) accent (distinctive pronunciation of a language; phonetic and phonological aspects of a lect)
  2. a notably deviant or disprivileged pronunciation of a language
  3. (linguistics) accent (contrasting articulation to express emphasis)
  4. (orthography) accent (symbol to indicate spoken accent or the nature of a vowel)
    Synonym: accentteken
  5. (music) accent (stress or emphasis)
  6. (music) a mark that indicates musical accent
    Synonym: accentteken

Inherited from Middle French accent, from Old French acent, accent, borrowed from Latin accentus (“accent, tone, accentuation”).

accent m (plural accents)

  1. accent, manner or tone of speech
    Elle parle anglais avec un fort accent français. ― She speaks English with a strong French accent.

    Aux États-Unis, son accent français ne manque jamais d’attirer l’attention des femmes.

    In the United States, his French accent never fails to attract women's attention.
  2. (linguistics) an accent symbol
    Hyponyms: accent aigu, accent circonflexe, accent grave
  3. (linguistics) accent, stress
  4. (music) strain, section
  5. emphasis, focus
    L’accent est mis sur les quantités plutôt que sur les qualités. ― Emphasis is placed on the quantities rather than the qualities.

From Old French acent, from Latin accentus, from ad + cantus (“song”).

accent m (plural accents)

  1. (linguistics) accent, stress

From French accent (“accent, manner or tone of speech”), from Middle French accent, from Old French acent, from Latin accentus (“accent, tone, accentuation”), past participle of accinō (“sing to, sing along”), from both ad- (“to”), from ad (“to, towards”), from Proto-Italic *ad (“toward, to, on, up to, for”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂éd (“to, at”) + and from canō (“I sing, recite, play”), from Proto-Italic *kanō (“to sing”), from Proto-Indo-European *keh₂n- (“to sing”).

accent

  1. Alternative spelling of aksent (“accent”)
  2. Only used in accent aigu (“acute accent”)
  3. Only used in accent circonflexe (“circumflex”)
  4. Only used in accent grave (“grave accent”)

Borrowed from Latin accentus.

accent m

  1. accent
  2. diacritic

Strong a-stem:

accent

  1. present active participle of acceti

Declension table of "accent" (masculine)

Declension table of "accentī" (feminine)

Declension table of "accent" (neuter)

Borrowed from French accent.

accent n (plural accente)

  1. emphasis
  2. accent

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.).

  • IPA(key): /akˈsɛnt/, /aˈsɛnt/

accent (plural accents)

  1. accent
  • Eagle, Andy, editor (2025), “accent”, in The Online Scots Dictionary‎[8]

Ultimately from Latin accentus.

  • IPA(key): /akːˈsɛnːt/, /akːˈsaŋː/

accent c

  1. an accent, an emphasis, a stress (in articulation)
  2. an accent, a mark on a letter (grave or acute)
  3. an accent, a voice influenced by dialect or another language