Accent

How to spell accent

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce accent

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does accent mean?

1. nounA distinctive way of pronouncing a language, usually associated with a particular region or social group.
2. nounEmphasis given to a syllable or word, or a small mark written above a letter to show pronunciation.
3. verbTo emphasise something or make it more noticeable.

Accent in a sentence

• noun

  Her northern accent became stronger whenever she rang her family.

• noun

  The accent in the word 'banana' falls on the second syllable.

• verb

  A few cushions can accent the colours already in the room.

• noun

  The actor spent months perfecting a convincing French accent for the film.

• noun

  Remember to add the accent over the e in 'café' when you type the menu.

• verb

  The designer used gold trim to accent the edges of the invitation.

Where does accent come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The word comes from the Latin accentus, which literally meant 'a singing added to' or the tone given to a syllable. It was built from the prefix ad-, meaning 'to' or 'towards', and the verb canere, meaning 'to sing', the same root that gives us 'chant' and 'cantata'. Roman grammarians coined accentus as a direct translation of the Greek prosoidia, the word from which we get 'prosody', because the Greeks heard the rise and fall of speech as a kind of melody. English picked the word up in the late 1300s through Old French, first to describe the stress or musical pitch placed on a syllable, and later widening to mean a regional manner of speaking. Because the 'sing' root is buried and the double c is followed by the soft 'cc' sound, the spelling keeps both c's even though only one is clearly heard.

How the word is built

• ac- (from ad-: to, towards)
• cent (from cantus, the past participle of canere: to sing)