Accented

prominence of a syllable in terms of differential loudness, or of pitch, or length, or of a combination of these.
degree of prominence of a syllable within a word and sometimes of a word within a phrase:
primary accent; secondary accent.
a mark indicating stress (as (·, ·), or (ˈ, ˌ), or (′, ″)), vowel quality (as french grave `, acute ´, circ-mflex ^, ), form (as french la “the” versus là “there”), or pitch.
any similar mark.
prosody.

regularly recurring stress.
a mark indicating stress or some other distinction in pr-nunciation or value.

a musical tone or pattern of pitch inherent in a particular language either as a feature essential to the identification of a vowel or a syllable or to the general acoustic character of the language.
compare (def 7).
often, accents.

the unique speech patterns, inflections, choice of words, etc., that identify a particular individual:
we recognized his accents immediately. she corrected me in her usual mild accents.
the distinctive style or tone characteristic of an author, composer, etc.:
the unmistakably brahmsian accents of the sonata; she recognized the familiar accents of robert frost in the poem.

a mode of pr-nunciation, as pitch or tone, emphasis pattern, or intonation, characteristic of or peculiar to the speech of a particular person, group, or locality:
french accent; southern accent.
compare (def 5).
such a mode of pr-nunciation recognized as being of foreign origin:
he still speaks with an accent.
music.

a stress or emphasis given to certain notes.
a mark noting this.
stress or emphasis regularly recurring as a feature of rhythm.

mathematics.

a symbol used to distinguish similar quant-ties that differ in value, as in b ′, b ″, b ‴ (called b prime, b second or b double prime, b third or b triple prime, respectively).
a symbol used to indicate a particular unit of measure, as feet (′) or inches (″), minutes (′) or seconds (″).
a symbol used to indicate the order of a derivative of a function in calculus, as f′ (called f prime) is the first derivative of a function f.

words or tones expressive of some emotion.
accents, words; language; speech:
he spoke in accents bold.
distinctive character or tone:
an accent of whining complaint.
special attention, stress, or emphasis:
an accent on accuracy.
a detail that is emphasized by contrasting with its surroundings:
a room decorated in navy blue with two red vases as accents.
a distinctive but subordinate pattern, motif, color, flavor, or the like:
the salad dressing had an accent of garlic.
to pr-nounce with prominence (a syllable within a word or a word within a phrase): to accent the first syllable of “into”; to accent the first word of “white house.”.
compare (def 12).
to mark with a written accent or accents.
to give emphasis or prominence to; .
contemporary examples

her face is round, and her dimpled smile is accented by two front teeth that resemble chiclets.
ralph lauren child model, from roadside to runway claire stern may 22, 2013

long, column dresses in similar floral prints (accented with t-ssels and sequined bits) came next.
marc jacobs: hot & heavy for spring 2014 at new york fashion week isabel wilkinson september 13, 2013

“he is beautiful,” one accented p-sser-by says to the camera.
the secret world of men who dress like dolls nina strochlic january 6, 2014

mandela kept his temper, spoke civilly in his accented english and did his best for those he represented.
mandela, my source: one journalist’s memory of clandestine meetings benjamin pogrund december 5, 2013

they worked heavily with long black pleated knits, accented with a bit of silver or gold.
proenza schouler spring/summer 2014: serenity now isabel wilkinson september 10, 2013

historical examples

jerome is accented on the first syllable; in america it is always accented on the second.
the american language henry l. mencken

never should it be said that antonia dennant had accented him and thrown him over.
the island pharisees john galsworthy

further, it was formerly supposed that the number of unaccented syllables following the accented syllable was indifferent.
a history of english versification jakob schipper

safti hailed him with the accented violence peculiar to the arabs.
sman; and safti’s summer day robert hichens

the foot consisting of an unaccented followed by an accented syllable is called an iambus.
elementary guide to literary criticism f. v. n. painter

noun (ˈæksənt)
the characteristic mode of pr-nunciation of a person or group, esp one that betrays social or geographical origin
the relative prominence of a spoken or sung syllable, esp with regard to stress or pitch compare pitch1 (sense 28), stress (sense 3)
a mark (such as ˈ , ˌ , ´ or `) used in writing to indicate the stress or prominence of a syllable. such a mark may also be used to indicate that a written syllable is to be pr-nounced, esp when such pr-nunciation is not usual, as in turnèd
any of various marks or symbols conventionally used in writing certain languages to indicate the quality of a vowel, or for some other purpose, such as differentiation of h-m-graphs see acute (sense 10), grave2 (sense 5), circ-mflex
(in some languages, such as chinese) any of the tones that have phonemic value in distinguishing one word from another compare tone (sense 7)
rhythmic stress in verse or prose
(music)

stress placed on certain notes in a piece of music, indicated by a symbol printed over the note concerned
the rhythmic pulse of a piece or p-ssage, usually represented as the stress on the first beat of each bar see also syncopation

(maths) either of two superscript symbols indicating a specific unit, such as feet (′), inches (″), minutes of arc (′), or seconds of arc (″)
a distinctive characteristic of anything, such as taste, pattern, style, etc
particular attention or emphasis: an accent on learning
a strongly contrasting detail: a blue rug with red accents
verb (transitive) (ækˈsɛnt)
to mark with an accent in writing, speech, music, etc
to lay particular emphasis or stress on
n.

late 14c., “particular mode of pr-nunciation,” from middle french accent, from old french acent (13c.), from latin accentus “song added to speech,” from ad- “to” (see ad-) + cantus “a singing,” past participle of canere “to sing” (see chant (v.)). loan-translation of greek prosoidia, from pros- “to” + oide “song,” which apparently described the pitch scheme in greek verse. the decorating sense of “something that emphasizes or highlights” is from 1972.
v.

“to pr-nounce with accent or stress,” 1520s, from middle french accenter, from old french acenter, from accent (see accent (n.)). related: accented; accenting.