emphasize

English

Alternative forms

• emphasise (Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, UK)

Etymology

Latin, from Ancient Greek – see emphasis.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA: /ˈɛm.fə.saɪz/, SAMPA: /"Em.f@.saIz/

Verb

emphasize (third-person singular simple present emphasizes, present participle emphasizing, simple past and past participle emphasized)

1. (transitive) To stress, give emphasis or extra weight to (something).

   His two-fingered gesture emphasized what he had told his boss to do with his job.

Synonyms

• stress
• underscore

Antonyms

• de-emphasize
• downplay

Derived terms

• reemphasize
• overemphasize
• underemphasize

Related terms

• emphasis
• emphatic

Translations

stress

Arabic: شدد (ar) (sháddada) Bulgarian: подчертавам (bg), изтъквам (bg) Catalan: emfatitzar (ca) Chinese: Mandarin: 強調 (zh), 强调 (zh) (qiángdiào), 著重 (zh), 着重 (zh) (zhuózhòng) Czech: zdůraznit (cs) Finnish: painottaa (fi), korostaa (fi) French: souligner (fr) German: betonen (de)

Japanese: 強調する (ja) (きょうちょうする, kyōchō-suru), アクセントをつける (ja) (akusento-o tsukeru) Portuguese: enfatizar (pt) Russian: подчёркивать (ru) (podčórkivat') impf., подчеркнуть (ru) (podčerknút') pf. Slovene: poudáriti (sl) Spanish: subrayar (es), enfatizar (es) Swedish: betona (sv), understryka (sv)