Did you know?
When you accentuate something you put an “accent,” or emphasis, on it. There’s no need to stress out if you don’t know the word’s history, though; its journey into the English language was very straightforward. It comes from Latin accentus, meaning “accent” (which itself comes in part from cantus, meaning “song”), and since the early 18th century, its meanings haven’t changed much. The word was initially used as a synonym of the verb accent to mean “to pronounce with greater stress or force,” which is a small leap from today’s meaning of “to make something more noticeable; to emphasize.” One excellent way to remember not only how to pronounce accentuate but also its etymological connection to song is the classic (and helpfully titled) tune “Ac-Cent-Tchu-Ate the Positive,” by Harold Arlen and Johnny Mercer, which has been performed by such luminaries as Dinah Washington, Sam Cooke, and Bing Crosby and the Andrews Sisters.
Examples of accentuate in a Sentence
Leanne Potts, Better Homes & Gardens, 6 Jan. 2026
Meanwhile, her lashes were accentuated using the Flourishing Lengthening Mascara.
—Kaleigh Werner, Footwear News, 5 Jan. 2026
Adding Imai only accentuates how competitive spring training will be for the final rotation spots behind him and Hunter Brown.
—Chandler Rome, New York Times, 2 Jan. 2026
The lamps also accentuated the covert connection with the Berlin exhibition, because the Löwenbrücke is very close to the Gaslaternen-Freilichtmuseum, an open-air display of streetlamps in the Tiergarten.
—Javier Montes, Artforum, 1 Jan. 2026
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Cite this Entry
“Accentuate.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/accentuate. Accessed 7 Jan. 2026.
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accentuate
verb
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