WordWeb Online

1. Special importance or significance
   "the red light gave the central figure increased emphasis";
   - accent
    
2. Intensity or forcefulness of expression
   "his emphasis on civil rights";
   - vehemence, vehemency
    
3. Special and significant stress by means of position or repetition
    
4. The relative prominence of a syllable or musical note (especially with regard to stress or pitch)
   "he put the emphasis on the wrong syllable";
   - stress, accent

Derived forms: emphases

Type of: grandness, importance, inflection, intensity, intensiveness, prosody, rhetorical device

Encyclopedia: Emphasis, Stuttgart 1961