Accent

1. prominence of a syllable in terms of differential loudness, or of pitch, or length, or of a combination of these. 2. degree of prominence of a syllable within a word and sometimes of a word within a phrase: primary accent; secondary accent. 3. a mark indicating stress (as (·, ·), or (ˈ, ˌ), or (′, ″)), vowel quality (as French grave `, acute ´, circumflex ^, ), form (as French la “the” versus là “there”), or pitch. 4. any similar mark. 5. Prosody. regularly recurring stress. a mark indicating stress or some other distinction in pronunciation or value. 6. a musical tone or pattern of pitch inherent in a particular language either as a feature essential to the identification of a vowel or a syllable or to the general acoustic character of the language. Compare tone (def 7). 7. Often, accents. the unique speech patterns, inflections, choice of words, etc., that identify a particular individual: We recognized his accents immediately. She corrected me in her usual mild accents. the distinctive style or tone characteristic of an author, composer, etc.: the unmistakably Brahmsian accents of the sonata; She recognized the familiar accents of Robert Frost in the poem. 8. a mode of pronunciation, as pitch or tone, emphasis pattern, or intonation, characteristic of or peculiar to the speech of a particular person, group, or locality: French accent; Southern accent. Compare tone (def 5). 9. such a mode of pronunciation recognized as being of foreign origin: He still speaks with an accent. 10. Music. a stress or emphasis given to certain notes. a mark noting this. stress or emphasis regularly recurring as a feature of rhythm. 11. Mathematics. a symbol used to distinguish similar quantities that differ in value, as in b ′, b ″, b ‴ (called b prime, b second or b double prime, b third or b triple prime, respectively). a symbol used to indicate a particular unit of measure, as feet (′) or inches (″), minutes (′) or seconds (″). a symbol used to indicate the order of a derivative of a function in calculus, as f′ (called f prime) is the first derivative of a function f. 12. words or tones expressive of some emotion. 13. accents, words; language; speech: He spoke in accents bold. 14. distinctive character or tone: an accent of whining complaint. 15. special attention, stress, or emphasis: an accent on accuracy. 16. a detail that is emphasized by contrasting with its surroundings: a room decorated in navy blue with two red vases as accents. 17. a distinctive but subordinate pattern, motif, color, flavor, or the like: The salad dressing had an accent of garlic.