stress

In phonetics, an emphasis given to a syllable of speech by making it louder than the rest of the word. This emphasis may have no meaning; for example, Czech words are regularly stressed on the first syllable. It may, however, distinguish the meanings of similarly spelled but differently pronounced words; for example, permit is stressed on the first syllable as a noun and on the second as a verb. It may also be applied to a word to express its importance in a sentence. See also intonation.