emphasized

American

[em-fuh-sahyzd] / ˈɛm fəˌsaɪzd /

especially British, emphasised

adjective

made more visible, more important, etc.; stressed.

Read the emphasized sentence carefully, and contrast it with the information given in the previous paragraph.
Good sportsmanship was the emphasized theme of the club's operations.

verb

the simple past tense and past participle of emphasize.

Other Word Forms

Etymology

Origin of emphasized

emphasize ( def. ) + -ed ² ( def. )

Explanation

Something that's emphasized is stressed. The emphasized point of a politician's speech might be lowering taxes. When you put stress on something or pay it extra attention, you can describe it as emphasized. There are emphasized syllables in words, emphasized subjects in school, and emphasized parts of a wedding reception speech. The source of the adjective emphasized is the noun emphasis, "importance or stress." Emphasis is a Greek word, used in rhetoric to mean "significance" or "indirect meaning," from emphainein, "let a thing be seen."

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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.

See Examples For:

emphasized

Despite these potentially important differences, the researchers emphasized that the study could not establish whether calcium scan-guided treatment provides cardiovascular protection comparable to traditional risk assessment.

From Science Daily ● Nov. 6, 2026

He emphasized the importance of getting back to basics.

From MarketWatch ● Nov. 3, 2026

The court acted after a task force found that eliminating Rule 5.4 could improve access to justice and emphasized that other ethics rules would continue to protect lawyers’ independence.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 2, 2026

Just a few weeks ago, Talarico’s campaign met with local Muslim officials and community members in Dallas, where he emphasized a bill he filed that would include Muslim imams as legally recognized marriage officiants.

From Slate ● Nov. 2, 2026