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(), n.[F. accent, L. accentus; ad + cantus a singing, canere to sing. See Cant.] 1. A superior force of voice or of articulative effort upon some particular syllable of a word or a phrase, distinguishing it from the others. Many English words have two accents, the primary and the secondary; the primary being uttered with a greater stress of voice than the secondary; as in aspira"tion, where the chief stress is on the third syllable, and a slighter stress on the first. Some words, as antiapo-plec"tic, in-compre-hensi-bil"i-ty, have two secondary accents. See Guide to Pron., 30-46. 2. A mark or character used in writing, and serving to regulate the pronunciation; esp.: (a) a mark to indicate the nature and place of the spoken accent; (b) a mark to indicate the quality of sound of the vowel marked; as, the French accents. In the ancient Greek the acute accent () meant a raised tone or pitch, the grave (°), the level tone or simply the negation of accent, the Accent" (), v. t.[imp. & p. p.Accented; p. pr. & vb. n.Accenting.] [OF. accenter, F. accentuer.] 1. To express the accent of (either by the voice or by a mark); to utter or to mark with accent. 2. To mark emphatically; to emphasize. スポンサード リンク
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