Dictionary Definition
emphasis
Noun
1 special importance or significance; "the red
light gave the central figure increased emphasis"; "the room was
decorated in shades of gray with distinctive red accents" [syn:
accent]
2 intensity or forcefulness of expression; "the
vehemence of his denial"; "his emphasis on civil rights" [syn:
vehemence]
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); "he put
the stress on the wrong syllable" [syn: stress, accent] [also: emphases (pl)]
User Contributed Dictionary
English
Etymology
From (emphasis) "significance" < (emphainō) "I present" or "I indicate" < (en) "in" and (phainō) "I show"Pronunciation
- /'ɛmfəsɪs/
Noun
- Special weight or forcefulness given to
something considered important.
- He paused for emphasis before saying who had won.
- Special attention
or prominence given
to something.
- Anglia TV's emphasis is on Norwich and district.
- Prominence given to a syllable or words, by raising the voice or printing in italic or underlined type.
- He used a yellow highlighter to indicate where to give emphasis in his speech.
- Related to bold.
Translations
special weight or forcefulness given to
something considered important
- German: Betonung, Nachdruck
- Hungarian: nyomaték
special attention or prominence given to
something
- German: Emphase, Schwerpunkt
- Hungarian: hangsúly
prominence given to a syllable or words
- Czech: důraz
- German: Betonung, Gewichtung
- Hungarian: hangsúly
(typography) related to bold
Noun
emphasisExtensive Definition
The etymological origin of "emphasis" is from the
Greek "εν(εμ)+ φαίνομαι" meaning : to accent the appearance, to
underline, to put in bold, make something more significant or
important.
The word emphasis, in addition to its main
dictionary meaning, may have the following technical
meanings.
- Emphasis, a notion from FM signal transmission
- Emphasis, in typography: visual enhancement a part of a text to make it noticeable
- In the grammatical terminology used in discussing the Semitic languages, "emphasis" refers to certain phonologically differentiated stop or fricative consonant sounds. The exact phonological realization of emphatic consonants varies between languages, but includes ejective consonants in Ethopian Semitic languages, and velarization/pharyngealization on Arabic. Emphatic consonants include ط ص ظ ض in Arabic, and ט צ ק in Hebrew.
- EMPHASIS: Early Modern Philosophy and the Scientific Imagination Seminar
emphasis in German: Emphase
Synonyms, Antonyms and Related Words
Alexandrine, accent, accentuation, amphibrach, amphimacer, anacrusis, anapest, antispast, arsis, attention, bacchius, beat, cadence, caesura, catalexis, chloriamb, chloriambus, colon, concern, concernment, consequence, consequentiality,
consideration,
counterpoint,
cretic, dactyl, dactylic hexameter,
diaeresis, dimeter, dipody, dochmiac, elegiac, elegiac couplet,
elegiac pentameter, epitrite, excellence, feminine caesura,
foot, force, grammatical accent,
gravity, heptameter, heptapody, heroic couplet,
hexameter, hexapody, high order, high
rank, iamb, iambic, iambic pentameter,
ictus, import, importance, interest, intonation, intonation
pattern, ionic, jingle, level of stress, lilt, mark, masculine caesura, materiality, measure, merit, meter, metrical accent, metrical
foot, metrical group, metrical unit, metrics, metron, molossus, moment, mora, movement, note, numbers, paeon, paralipsis, paramountcy, pentameter, pentapody, period, pitch accent, precedence, preeminence, primacy, primary stress,
priority, proceleusmatic, prominence, prosodics, prosody, pyrrhic, quantity, rhetorical accent,
rhythm, rhythmic pattern,
rhythmical accent, rhythmical stress, secondary stress,
self-importance, significance, spondee, sprung rhythm, stress, stress accent, stress
arsis, stress pattern, superiority, supremacy, swing, syzygy, tertiary stress, tetrameter, tetrapody, tetraseme, thesis, tone accent, tribrach, trimeter, tripody, triseme, trochee, underlining, underscoring, value, weak stress, weight, worth