emphasize
/ˈɛm.fə.saɪz/verb
emphasize is spelled E-M-P-H-A-S-I-Z-E: 9 letters and 3 syllables. It appears 4.9 times per million words in written English, the 11,373rd most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a verb, emphasize means “To stress, give emphasis or extra weight to (something)” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).
How many letters and syllables are in emphasize?
| Letters | 9: E-M-P-H-A-S-I-Z-E |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 3 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 4.9 times per million words; the 11,373rd most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How common is emphasize?
Emphasize appears 4.9 times per million words in written English, the 11,373rd most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce emphasize?
- UK /ˈɛm.fə.saɪz/
- UK [ˈɛɱ.fə.saɪz]
Emphasize has 3 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vininn126-emphasize.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of emphasize
- emphasizes present, singular, he/she/it
- emphasizing participle, present
- emphasized participle, past
- emphasise UK
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does emphasize mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
verb
- 1
To stress, give emphasis or extra weight to (something).
His two-fingered gesture emphasized what he had told his boss to do with his job.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Emphasize in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense stress:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | souligner, accentuer |
| German | betonen, unterstreichen, hervorheben, akzentuieren |
| Portuguese | enfatizar |
| Spanish | enfatizar |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does emphasize come from?
Latin, from Ancient Greek – see emphasis. By surface analysis, emphasis + -ize.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).