"accents" in the noun sense

1. accent, speech pattern

distinctive manner of oral expression

"he couldn't suppress his contemptuous accent"

"she had a very clear speech pattern"

2. emphasis, accent

special importance or significance

"the red light gave the central figure increased emphasis"

"the room was decorated in shades of grey with distinctive red accents"

3. dialect, idiom, accent

the usage or vocabulary that is characteristic of a specific group of people

"the immigrants spoke an odd dialect of English"

"he has a strong German accent"

"it has been said that a language is a dialect with an army and navy"

4. stress, emphasis, accent

the relative prominence of a syllable or musical note (especially with regard to stress or pitch

"he put the stress on the wrong syllable"

5. accent, accent mark

a diacritical mark used to indicate stress or placed above a vowel to indicate a special pronunciation

"accents" in the verb sense

1. stress, emphasize, emphasise, punctuate, accent, accentuate

to stress, single out as important

"Dr. Jones emphasizes exercise in addition to a change in diet"

2. stress, accent, accentuate

put stress on utter with an accent

"In Farsi, you accent the last syllable of each word"

Source: WordNet® (An amazing lexical database of English)

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