accent
Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.
Letters
6 characters
Language
English
word origin
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Detailed reference entry for the English word "accent", 6-letters, with pronunciation in International Phonetic Alphabet notation, etymology traced through Germanic and Romance roots where applicable, common misspelling variants catalogued from Hunspell error dictionaries, and usage frequency ranked against the top 100,000 English words in the Wordfreq corpus. PlainSpell covers English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German spelling with confusable-pair detection that highlights visually and phonetically similar words. This entry for "accent" includes synonyms, antonyms, homophones, and cross-language translation pointers sourced from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org extract. Whether you are verifying the correct spelling of "accent" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.
accent is aEnglishnoun. It means: A higher-pitched or stronger (louder or longer) articulation of a particular syllable of a word or phrase in order to distinguish it from the others or to emphasize it. Pronounced /ˈak.sənt/. It ranks #5,655 in English word frequency. Often confused with acct and agent.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | accent |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈak.sənt/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #5,655 |
| Misspellings tracked | 7 |
| Confusable pairs | 17 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency rank visualization
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for accent is 6 letters long, classified as anoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈak.sənt/. Corpus data places it at rank #5,655 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text.Wiktionary records 19 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 7 documented wrong-spelling variants for accent, with forms such as "accennt", "accentt", and "accetn". Each variant represents a distinct typo pattern that appears often enough in corpora to be worth flagging, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution.It also participates in 17 confusable-pair relationships, "acct", "agent", "arent", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English accent, from Medieval Latin accentus and Old French accent, acent, both from Latin accentus, past participle of accinō (“sing to, sing along”). The word accent had been borrowed into Old English already, but was lost and reborrowed in Mi… Root origin matters for spelling because borrowed morphemes (Greek, Latin, Old French, Old English) carry their source-language orthographic conventions into modern English, which is why historical etymology is often the cleanest predictor of whether a cluster like "-ough", "-eau", or "-tion" will appear. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct English form is accent, spelled A-C-C-E-N-T, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.
Definition
- 1A higher-pitched or stronger (louder or longer) articulation of a particular syllable of a word or phrase in order to distinguish it from the others or to emphasize it.
- 2Emphasis or importance in general.
- 3A mark used in writing, in order to indicate the place of the spoken stress.
- 4Any mark used in writing over letters, either in order to indicate the place of the spoken stress, or to indicate the nature or quality of the vowel marked, or to distinguish homophones.
- 5Modulation of the voice in speaking; the manner of speaking or pronouncing; a peculiar or characteristic modification of the voice, expressing emotion; tone.
- 6The distinctive manner of pronouncing a language associated with a particular region, social group, etc., whether of a native speaker or a foreign speaker; the phonetic and phonological aspects of a dialect.
- 7The distinctive manner of pronouncing a language associated with a particular region, social group, etc., whether of a native speaker or a foreign speaker; the phonetic and phonological aspects of a dialect.
- 8The distinctive manner of pronouncing a language associated with a particular region, social group, etc., whether of a native speaker or a foreign speaker; the phonetic and phonological aspects of a dialect.
- 9A word; a significant tone or sound.
- 10Expressions in general; speech.
- 11Stress laid on certain syllables of a verse.
- 12A regularly recurring stress upon the tone to mark the beginning, and, more feebly, the third part of the measure.
- 13A special emphasis of a tone, even in the weaker part of the measure.
- 14A mark used to represent this special emphasis.
- 15The rhythmical accent, which marks phrases and sections of a period.
- 16A prime symbol.
- 17Emphasis laid on a part of an artistic design or composition; an emphasized detail, in particular a detail in sharp contrast to its surroundings.
- 18A very small gemstone set into a piece of jewellery.
- 19Utterance.
Etymology
From Middle English accent, from Medieval Latin accentus and Old French accent, acent, both from Latin accentus, past participle of accinō (“sing to, sing along”). The word accent had been borrowed into Old English already, but was lost and reborrowed in Middle English.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: accennt,accentt,accetn,accnet,acecnt,acent,cacent
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
Relative frequency of common misspelling types for accent
Misspelling Variants of "accent"
Frequency rank: #5,655 in English
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Nearby English words
Other entries that begin with the letter A in our English index: