secondary accent

noun

1. a stress accent weaker than primary accent but stronger than lack of stress.

secondary accent

noun

1. phonetics (in a system of transcribing utterances recognizing three levels of stress) the accent on a syllable of a word or breath group that is weaker than the primary accent but stronger than the lack of stress Compare primary accent

   in the word ``agriculture'' the secondary accent falls on the third syllable

Word History and Origins

Origin of secondary accent¹

First recorded in 1830–40