stress

In linguistics, relative emphasis given to a syllable or other speech element

EntityQ181767

Also known as emphasis · accent

Subclass of: human behavior
Part of: speech
, idiolect

Overview

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia · Read full article · Text CC BY-SA 4.0

In linguistics, and particularly phonology, stress or accent is the relative emphasis or prominence given to a certain syllable in a word or to a certain word in a phrase or sentence. That emphasis is typically caused by such properties as increased loudness and vowel length, full articulation of the vowel, and changes in tone. The terms stress and accent are often used synonymously in that context but are sometimes distinguished. For example, when emphasis is produced through pitch alone, it is called pitch accent, and when produced through length alone, it is called quantitative accent. When caused by a combination of various intensified properties, it is called stress accent or dynamic accent; English uses what is called variable stress accent.

Overview

All data

51 statements · 20% with external sources · numbers in brackets are citations

Uses: loudness
vowel length
pitch
Different from: accent
diacritic
Has use: emphasis nature of statement: often
Studied by: accentology
phonology
prosody
Notation: primary stress mark
secondary stress mark
accent symbol

On other databases

31 identifiers linking stress across the web's reference databases

Data quality

statements

20%

externally sourced

Source last edited October 12, 2026. AIDb refreshes this page daily.

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AIDb. (2026). stress (Q181767). Retrieved from https://aidb.si/e/stress-Q181767