accentuate

/ækˈsɛntʃueɪt/

/ækˈsɛntʃueɪt/

Other forms: accentuated; accentuating; accentuates

To accentuate something is to emphasize it. If you want someone to know you’re from the American South, accentuate your accent by laying it on thick, y’all.

When you accentuate, you draw attention to something. You could wear a green shirt to accentuate your green eyes, for example. You can also accentuate words when you give them added stress. An actor might accentuate certain words in a monologue in order to emphasize the character's anger. This word traces all the way back to the Latin verb canere, "to sing."

Definitions of accentuate

1. verb

   stress or single out as important
   synonyms: accent, emphasise, emphasize, punctuate, stress

   types:

   background, downplay, play down

   understate the importance or quality of

   bring out, set off

   direct attention to, as if by means of contrast

   re-emphasise, re-emphasize

   emphasize anew

   bear down

   pay special attention to

   topicalize

   emphasize by putting heavy stress on or by moving to the front of the sentence

   point up

   emphasize, especially by identification

   drive home, press home, ram home

   make clear by special emphasis and try to convince somebody of something

   emphasise, emphasize, underline, underscore

   give extra weight to (a communication)

   pick up

   lift out or reflect from a background

   wave off

   dismiss as insignificant

   foreground, highlight, play up, spotlight

   move into the foreground to make more visible or prominent

   raise

   bring (a surface or a design) into relief and cause to project

   soft-pedal

   play down or obscure

   type of:

   evince, express, show

   give expression to
2. verb

   put stress on; utter with an accent
   synonyms: accent, stress

   type of:

   articulate, enounce, enunciate, pronounce, say, sound out

   speak, pronounce, or utter in a certain way