emphasis
Special weight or forcefulness given to something considered important.
Example
“He paused for emphasis before saying who had won.”
Other meanings
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.”
Synonyms
- accent
Related words
- deemphasis
- hyperemphasis
- misemphasis
- overemphasis
- preemphasis
- reemphasis
- superemphasis
- underemphasis
- de-emphasis
- my emphasis
Word history
From Ancient Greek "ἔμφασις" (significance).
Where this comes from
This definition is adapted from “emphasis” on Wiktionary, by its contributors; related-word lists use Open English WordNet (CC BY 4.0, based on Princeton WordNet), published under CC BY-SA 4.0. This page is published under the same licence.