ACCENTUATE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does accentuate mean? 

• ACCENTUATE (verb)
  The verb ACCENTUATE has 2 senses:

1. to stress, single out as important

2. put stress on; utter with an accent

  Familiarity information: ACCENTUATE used as a verb is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• ACCENTUATE (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they accentuate    ... he / she / it accentuates   
Past simple: accentuated   
Past participle: accentuated   
-ing form: accentuating   

Sense 1

Meaning:

To stress, single out as important

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

Synonyms:

accent; accentuate; emphasise; emphasize; punctuate; stress

Context example:

Dr. Jones emphasizes exercise in addition to a change in diet

Hypernyms (to "accentuate" is one way to...):

evince; express; show (give expression to)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "accentuate"):

background; downplay; play down (understate the importance or quality of)

bring out; set off (direct attention to, as if by means of contrast)

re-emphasise; re-emphasize (emphasize anew)

bear down (pay special attention to)

topicalize (emphasize by putting heavy stress on or by moving to the front of the sentence)

point up (emphasize, especially by identification)

drive home; press home; ram home (make clear by special emphasis and try to convince somebody of something)

emphasise; emphasize; underline; underscore (give extra weight to (a communication))

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Something ----s something
Somebody ----s that CLAUSE

Derivation:

accent (special importance or significance)

accentuation (the act of giving special importance or significance to something)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Put stress on; utter with an accent

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

Synonyms:

accent; accentuate; stress

Context example:

In Farsi, you accent the last syllable of each word

Hypernyms (to "accentuate" is one way to...):

articulate; enounce; enunciate; pronounce; say; sound out (speak, pronounce, or utter in a certain way)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Derivation:

accent (a diacritical mark used to indicate stress or placed above a vowel to indicate a special pronunciation)

accent (the relative prominence of a syllable or musical note (especially with regard to stress or pitch))

accent (distinctive manner of oral expression)

accent (the usage or vocabulary that is characteristic of a specific group of people)

accentuation (the use or application of an accent; the relative prominence of syllables in a phrase or utterance)

 Context examples 

Do you not think that it is over-accentuated?

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

This feeling had been accentuated by the Ishmaelite life he had led from his puppyhood.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

A rare syndrome characterized by almost complete absence of body fat, accentuated muscularity, insulin-resistant diabetes, hyperlipidemia, hepatomegaly, and hypermetabolism.

(Lipoatrophic Diabetes Mellitus, NCI Thesaurus)

Her face was ghastly, with a pallor which was accentuated by the blood which smeared her lips and cheeks and chin; from her throat trickled a thin stream of blood; her eyes were mad with terror.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

It may be that in the business of which I am now about to write the part which my friend played is not sufficiently accentuated; and yet the whole train of circumstances is so remarkable that I cannot bring myself to omit it entirely from this series.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

She was a slender, small-breasted girl, with an erect carriage which she accentuated by throwing her body backward at the shoulders like a young cadet.

(The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald)