emphatic
[em-fat-ik]
- uttered, or to be uttered, with emphasis; strongly expressive.
- using emphasis in speech or action.
- forceful; insistent: a big, emphatic man; I must be emphatic about this particular.
- very impressive or significant; strongly marked; striking: the emphatic beauty of sunset.
- clearly or boldly outlined: It stands, like a great, stone dagger, emphatic against the sky.
- Grammar. of or relating to a form used to add emphasis, especially, in English, stressed auxiliary do in affirmative statements, as in He did call you or I do like it.
- Phonetics. having a secondary velar articulation, as certain dental consonants in Arabic.
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- an emphatic consonant.
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Origin of emphatic
Synonyms
See more synonyms for emphatic on Thesaurus.com3. positive, energetic, forcible, pronounced, decided, unequivocal, definite.
Antonyms
3. weak.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for emphatic
Contemporary Examples
The adjudication of the Daily Beast office was clear and emphatic: penguin, penguin, penguin.
How Monty The Penguin Won Christmas: Britain’s Epic, Emotional CommercialsTim Teeman
November 16, 2014
The CDC too, has been emphatic in their promotion of the technique.
At the 92Y talk, de la Renta was emphatic about the future of his label.
It is a creepy sound, inhumanly high-pitched and strangely clipped and emphatic: “S-s-eeg maheevoh s-s-speeree.”
With a commanding voice and an emphatic, Emeril-esque “WOW!”
Meet the Chef Fighting to Ensure That Brazilians Will Never Be as Fat as AmericansBrandon Presser
June 25, 2014
Historical Examples
But as for the liner, it continued with its emphatic reiteration.
Quaint CourtshipsVarious
"I earned that, Martin," she returned determinedly to his emphatic remonstrance.
DustMr. and Mrs. Haldeman-Julius
He stepped closer to the Lakonian, and spoke with emphatic briefness.
Priestess of the FlameSewell Peaslee Wright
It was their sole, emphatic mission to kill, burn, and destroy.
King PhilipJohn S. C. (John Stevens Cabot) Abbott
They were aware that Arulai's "marks" were likely to be emphatic, for Arulai never does things by halves.
Lotus BudsAmy Carmichael
emphatic
- expressed, spoken, or done with emphasis
- forceful and positive; definite; directan emphatic personality
- sharp or clear in form, contour, or outline
- important or significant; stressedthe emphatic points in an argument
- phonetics denoting certain dental consonants of Arabic that are pronounced with accompanying pharyngeal constriction
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- phonetics an emphatic consonant, as used in Arabic
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Word Origin
C18: from Greek emphatikos expressive, forceful, from emphainein to exhibit, display, from phainein to show
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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Word Origin and History for emphatic
adj.
1708, from Greek emphatikos, variant of emphantikos, from emphainein (see emphasis). Emphatical is earlier (1550s). Related: Emphatically.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper