accent
1. ac.cent \'ak-.sent\ n [MF, fr. L accentus, fr. ad- + cantus song, fr.
cantus,] pp. of canere to sing - more at CHANT 1: a distinctive manner of
usu. oral expression : as 1a: the inflection, tone, or choice of words
taken to be unique in or highly characteristic of an individual - usu.
used in pl. 1b: speech habits typical of the natives or residents of a
region or of any other group 2a: an articulative effort giving prominence
to one syllable over adjacent syllables 2b: the prominence thus given a
syllable 3: rhythmically significant stress on the syllables of a verse
usu. at regu lar intervals archaic 4: UTTERANCE 5a: a mark (as <accent
acute>, <accent grave>, <circumflex>) us ed 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 5b: an accented letter 6a: greater stress given to
one musical tone than to its neighbors 6b1: the principle of regularly
recurring stresses which serve to distribut e a succession of pulses into
measures 6b2: special emphasis placed exceptionally upon tones not subject
to such a ccent 6c: ACCENT MARK 7a: emphasis laid on a part of an artistic
design or composition 7b: a detail or area emphasized; esp : a small
detail in sharp cont rast with its surroundings 7c: a substance or object
used for emphasis 8: a mark placed to the right of a letter or number and
usu. slightly above it : 8a1: a double prime 8a2: PRIME 8b: a mark used
singly with numbers to denote minutes and doubly to denote seconds of time
or to denote minutes and seconds of an angle or arc 8c: a mark used singly
with numbers to denote feet and doubly to denote inches 9: attribution of
special importance : EMPHASIS
2. ac.cent \'ak-.sent, ak-'\ vt 1a: to utter with accent : STRESS 1b: to
mark with a written or printed accent archaic 2: to give voice to 3: to
give prominence to or increase the prominence of