emphasize
verb
Simple meaning
Give extra weight to.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
ehmfuhsyzSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈɛmfəsaɪz
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.
verb
Give extra weight to (a communication)
transitive
To stress, give emphasis or extra weight to (something).
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- B2 · Upper Intermediate
- Frequency
- Moderately Common
- Typical Use
- Neutral / general English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
This meaning: Give extra weight to (a communication)
Used this way, emphasize is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- No strong connotation
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use emphasize
- “Dr. Jones emphasizes exercise in addition to a change in diet.”verb
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
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Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Inflected forms
Grammatical variations of the same word.
The act of giving special importance or significance to something.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
Reduce the emphasis.
Emphasize anew.
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Synonyms
Sense: give extra weight to (a communication)
Antonyms
Sense: give extra weight to (a communication)
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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.