emphatic
Americanadjective
-
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.
- Synonyms:
- definite, unequivocal, decided, pronounced, forcible, energetic, positive
- Antonyms:
- weak
-
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.
noun
adjective
-
expressed, spoken, or done with emphasis
-
forceful and positive; definite; direct
an emphatic personality
-
sharp or clear in form, contour, or outline
-
important or significant; stressed
the emphatic points in an argument
-
phonetics denoting certain dental consonants of Arabic that are pronounced with accompanying pharyngeal constriction
noun
Other Word Forms
- emphatically adverb
- emphaticalness noun
- unemphatic adjective
- unemphatically adverb
Etymology
Origin of emphatic
1700–10; < Greek emphatikós indicative, forceful, equivalent to *emphat ( ós ) ( em- em- 2 + phatós, variant of phantós visible, equivalent to phan-, stem of phaínesthai to appear + -tos adj. suffix) + -ikos -ic
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Therefore a chunky tenth of a fund in gold is quite an emphatic call, even if many funds have been raising their gold holdings in the last couple of years.
From MarketWatch • Mar. 27, 2026
His side then delivered an emphatic win over England at Murrayfield to end their rivals' 12-game unbeaten run.
From BBC • Mar. 14, 2026
He smacked 42 runs off just 11 deliveries to dominate his 56-run stand with Rachin Ravindra, including dispatching Jansen for five consecutive boundaries to complete an emphatic win.
From BBC • Mar. 4, 2026
Liu’s gold medal was perhaps the most emphatic response to a topic which hovers over every Games: pressure.
From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 23, 2026
He had broken into a waterman’s emphatic negative.
From "Jacob Have I Loved" by Katherine Paterson
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
