Main Entry:

em·phat·ic

Pronunciation:

\im-ˈfa-tik, em-\

Function:

adjective

Etymology:

Greek emphatikos, from emphainein

Date:

1635

1 : uttered with or marked by emphasis <an emphatic refusal> 2 : tending to express oneself in forceful speech or to take decisive action 3 : attracting special attention 4 : constituting or belonging to a set of tense forms in English consisting of the auxiliary do followed by an infinitive without to that are used to facilitate rhetorical inversion or to emphasize something

— em·phat·i·cal·ly \-ˈfa-ti-k(ə-)lē\ adverb