emphasis
/ˈɛmfəsɪs
/noun (plural emphases /ˈɛmfəsiːz/) [mass noun]
1Special importance, value, or prominence given to something: they placed great emphasis on the individual’s freedom [count noun]: different emphases and viewpoints...
- Other than that, however, today's two stories have very different emphases.
- It is difficult to assign priority to the problems since each centre's emphases and interests are different.
- All of the essays repeat this same cluster of ideas, developing their implications with different emphases and nuances.
Synonyms
prominence, importance, significance;
stress, weight, attention, priority, urgency, force, forcibleness, insistence, underlining, underscoring, intensity;
import, power, moment, mark, pre-eminence
2Stress given to a word or words when speaking to indicate particular importance: inflection and emphasis can change the meaning of what is said...
- Kylie repeated her words with special emphasis, as if talking to a very slow person.
- His emphasis on the word protector made the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end.
- I put plenty of emphasis on the word to make sure he understood what I was trying to say.
Synonyms
stress, accent, accentuation, weight, force, prominence;
beat;
Prosody ictus
2.1Vigour or intensity of expression: he spoke with emphasis and with complete conviction...
- He leaned forward in his chair again to give his words more emphasis.
- Bob manages to make very obvious things sound like genius by stressing his words and using his arms for emphasis.
Origin
Late 16th century: via Latin from Greek, originally 'appearance, show', later denoting a figure of speech in which more is implied than is said (the original sense in English), from emphainein 'exhibit', from em- 'in, within' + phainein 'to show'.