emphasis
noun
Simple meaning
Special importance or attention given to something.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
ehmfuhsuhsSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈɛmfəsəs
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
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.
The relative prominence of a syllable or musical note (especially with regard to stress or pitch)
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- A2 · Elementary (estimated)
- Frequency
- Common
- Typical Use
- General English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: Special weight or forcefulness given to something considered important.
Used this way, emphasis is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It suits considered writing and prepared speech.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Serious and weighty
- Usage feel
- Formal and precise
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use emphasis
- “The red light gave the central figure increased emphasis.”noun
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Related words
Connected by subject or meaning, not by word formation.
Reduce the emphasis.
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Synonyms
Sense: special weight or forcefulness given to something considered important
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.