emphasis

noun

Special weight or forcefulness given to something considered important.

Special attention or prominence given to something.

Prominence given to a syllable or words, by raising the voice or printing in italic or underlined type.

(typography) The use of boldface, italics, or other such formatting to highlight text.

(phonology) The phonetic or phonological feature that distinguishes emphatic consonants from other consonants.

Roots

phasisphas- · Greek · appearance

Synonyms for emphasis

accentn stressn accentuationn importancen attentionn significancen

Synonyms & related words for emphasis

Find synonyms, related words, and the definition of emphasis — including accent, stress, accentuation, importance, attention, significance. Dendril is a free visual thesaurus that shows them on an interactive map where stronger matches sit closer to the center — no signup, no ads.

Words related to emphasis

Explore words related to emphasis — words associated with it, words that go with it, and its nearest matches in meaning. Related words include underemphasis, underemphasize, emphasizing, emphasizes, overemphasis, emphasized, reemphasize, focuses. Click any word to make it the center of the map and keep exploring the web of connections.

Synonyms for emphasis

Common synonyms for emphasis include accent, stress, accentuation, importance, attention, significance — words that share a close meaning. Hover or tap any word on the map for its definition and part of speech.

Where does emphasis come from?

The word emphasis breaks down into one root of Greek origin: the root phas-, from Greek phasis (“appearance”). Explore each root to see other English words built from the same source.