accent
Pluralaccents
Verbaccents, accenting, accented
Pluralaccents
Formsaccents, accenting, accented
- 1A distinctive way of pronouncing a language, or of producing a sign language, associated with a region, social group, or a person's first language.
A hint of a German accent survived forty years in Ohio.
Newsreaders were once trained out of their regional accents.
UsageUsually described by degree: a strong, thick or broad accent, a hint of an accent; you speak with an accent.
Similarpronunciation
Note
In linguistics the word covers pronunciation alone. It is the sound side of a dialect, which also has its own words and grammar. Native and foreign speakers both have one, so in this sense everyone speaks with an accent. In everyday talk, though, saying someone has an accent usually means they sound different from the listener.
- 2A decorative detail that adds emphasis or contrast to a design or composition, such as a small gemstone set beside a larger stone in jewelry.
Brass accents lift the otherwise plain kitchen.
The painter added a single red accent to the gray canvas.
UsageOften before another noun: accent color, accent wall; often plural for the details: brass accents.
Similarhighlight, touch, detail, flourish
Note
Designers and decorators use the word for the detail that stands out against its surroundings. It works readily before another noun, most familiarly in accent color. That phrase names the shade picked to contrast with the main palette of a room or design, rather than to blend into it.
- 3To emphasize; to accentuate; to make prominent.
The lighting was designed to accent the height of the ceiling.
Her reply accented the gap between promise and delivery.
Similaremphasize, highlight, underscore, underline, stress
Oppositedownplay, minimize, understate, obscure
- 4A mark used in writing to show where the spoken stress falls or to indicate the quality of a vowel.
My phone keyboard lets me hold down a letter to add the accent French words need.
French uses the acute accent to mark a closed e, as in été.
UsageUsually named by type: an acute accent, a grave accent. You put an accent on or over a letter.
Similardiacritic
Note
Strictly, the word names marks that show stress or vowel quality. Everyday use stretches it to any diacritical mark, so a tilde, an umlaut and a cedilla all get called accents. Where precision matters, diacritical mark is the umbrella term and accent the narrower one.
- 5Stronger or higher-pitched emphasis on one syllable of a word or phrase, including the stress on certain syllables in a line of verse.
In careful the accent falls on the first syllable.
Putting the accent on the wrong syllable can make a long word hard for listeners to recognize.
UsageThe accent falls on or is on a syllable. In English, stress means the same here.
Note
It covers a rise in pitch as well as extra loudness or length, which makes it a little broader than its synonym stress.
- 6Figuratively, emphasis or importance in general.
The festival returns this summer with a strong accent on local musicians and family activities.
The report shifts the accent from cost to safety.
UsageUsually the accent is on something or put the accent on something: a strong accent on local music.
- 7In music, emphasis given to a particular note or beat, including the regular stress on the first beat of a bar and the accents marking phrases.
Jazz lives on accents placed where the ear does not expect them.
The conductor asked for a stronger accent on the second beat.
UsageA note is accented or played with an accent; you put an accent on a beat.
Note
A composer or performer can add this accent by choice, alongside the regular accents of the meter. Because it can land even in the weak part of a measure, it can push against the meter instead of confirming it, giving a rhythm an unexpected jolt.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 1 fact
- An accent can fall on a metrically weak position and work against the prevailing meter. en.wikipedia.org
Less common meanings
- 8The modulation or tone of the voice in speaking, especially as it expresses emotion.
Her voice took on a bitter accent whenever she mentioned her brother's name.
His voice carried a sharp accent of impatience as the meeting ran late.
UsageOften an accent of something, an accent of impatience, or an adjective: a bitter accent. It shows feeling, not where someone grew up.
Similartone, intonation, inflection, modulation, cadence
Note
Here the word hears feeling rather than origin: the tone of voice that carries plainness, tenderness or confidence. Shakespeare writes of "a plain accent" in King Lear, Matthew Prior of "the tender Accents of a Woman's Cry," and Jane Austen of "assurance of accent."
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 2 facts
- Shakespeare uses "a plain accent" in King Lear; Kent speaks the words. folger.edu
- Jane Austen uses "assurance of accent". gutenberg.org
- 9To pronounce with a particular stress or accent.
Americans accent the second syllable of garage and the British the first.
Learners often accent the wrong syllable of hotel, stressing the first instead of the second.
UsageMuch like stress: you accent the first syllable, accent a word.
- 10To mark with written accents.
Modern editions accent the Greek text, though the oldest manuscripts had no such marks.
The editor accented the Spanish quotations by hand.
- 11In music, a mark used to indicate that a note is to be given special emphasis.
The accent above the chord tells the pianist to strike it sharply.
Accents in the score mark every off-beat entry.
UsageUse above or below for the mark's position: the accent above the chord, an accent below the note.
Note
Here the word names the sign on the page, not the sound it asks for. It parallels the written accent of spelling, which can likewise record a spoken stress in writing. In rehearsal the musical meanings run together, so "watch the accents" can mean either the marks or the emphasis they call for.
- 12Literary: a spoken word, sound, or utterance; in the plural, words or speech in general.
I heard my landlady's accents attuned to nervous civility, mingling with the mellow tones of a deep masculine voice,
1895, Marie Corelli, The Sorrows of Satan: or The Strange Experience of One Geoffrey Tempest - 13In mathematics, a prime symbol.
Showing meanings only.
Practice
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Origins
The Latin noun accentus, derived from accinō ("sing to, sing along"), is the source of Medieval Latin accentus and Old French accent, which together gave Middle English accent. Old English had already borrowed the word, but it died out and was taken in again in Middle English.
Latin accentō, formed from accentus, passed into Old French and then Middle French as accenter.