Ac*cent" (&?;), 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.
Ac"cent` (&?;), 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.
&fist; 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 as′pira\'b6tion, where the chief stress is on the third syllable, and a slighter stress on the first.
Some words, as an′tiap′o-plec\'b6tic, in- com′pre-hen′si-bil\'b6i-ty, have two secondary accents. See Guide to
Pron., t=t= 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.
&fist; 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 circumflex ( ~ or ^) a tone raised
and then depressed. In works on elocution, the first is
often used to denote the rising inflection of the voice;
the second, the falling inflection; and the third (^), the compound or waving inflection. In dictionaries, spelling books,
and the like, the acute accent is used to designate the syllable which receives the chief stress of voice.
3. Modulation of the voice in
speaking; manner of speaking or pronouncing; peculiar or characteristic modification of the voice; tone; as, a foreign accent; a French or a German accent. "Beguiled you
in a plain
accent." Shak. "A
perfect accent."
Thackeray.
The tender accent of a woman's cry.
Prior.
4.
A word; a
significant tone;
(pl.) expressions in general; speech.
Winds! on your
wings to Heaven her accents bear,
Such words as Heaven alone is fit to hear.
Dryden.
5. (Pros.) Stress laid on certain syllables of a verse.
6. (Mus.) (a) A regularly recurring stress
upon the tone to mark
the beginning, and, more feebly, the third part of
the measure. (b) A special emphasis of a tone, even in the
weaker part of the measure. (c) The rhythmical accent, which marks phrases
and sections of a period. (d) The expressive emphasis
and shading of a passage. J. S. Dwight.
7. (Math.) (a)
A mark placed at the right
hand of a letter, and a
little above it, to distinguish magnitudes of a similar kind expressed by the same letter, but differing in value, as y′, y″. (b)
(Trigon.) A mark at the right hand of
a number, indicating minutes of a degree,
seconds, etc.; as, 12′27″, i. e., twelve minutes twenty seven seconds. (c) (Engin.) A mark used to denote feet and inches; as, 6′ 10″ is six feet ten inches.
Hear it pronounced