accent mark

noun

1. a mark used to indicate an accent, stress, etc., as for pronunciation or in musical notation.

Word History and Origins

Origin of accent mark¹

First recorded in 1885–90

Example Sentences

He wrote on his Facebook: “Note to news broadcasters in the USA: there’s an accent mark over the second ‘e’ in Pelé’s name because it is supposed to be pronounced ‘pay-LAY.’

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His song titles often feature extraneous umlauts, and while the accent mark highlights different vowel sounds, Yeat seems obsessed with creating new sounds entirely.

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Another system of accent marks, the te’amim, function as musical notes, and also indicate how to parse a sentence.

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For complex Nigerian languages like Yoruba, those accent marks — often associated with tones — make all the difference in communication.

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However, the English alphabet needs to be interspersed to convey certain information due to the use of accent marks in Navajo words.

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