Webster's English Dictionary

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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