unstressed

[ uhn-strest ]

See synonyms for unstressed on Thesaurus.com

adjective

without stress or emphasis, as a syllable in a word.
not receiving or subjected to stress, wear, etc.: the unstressed parts of a car body.

Origin of unstressed

First recorded in 1880–85; un-¹ + stress + -ed²

Words Nearby unstressed

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use unstressed in a sentence

Initial h before unstressed vowels is only pronounced when preceded by a pause.
The Sounds of Spoken English | Walter Rippmann
Began: notice the quality of the vowel in the first, unstressed syllable of this word.
The Sounds of Spoken English | Walter Rippmann
You use more force for the stressed than for the unstressed vowels, that is to say, you put more breath into them.
The Sounds of Spoken English | Walter Rippmann
The monotony of a series of stressed or of unstressed sounds would be unbearable.
Division of Words | Frederick W. Hamilton
Here the assonance is -er (final unstressed -er in standard present-day English represents vocalic r).
Modern Spanish Lyrics | Various

British Dictionary definitions for unstressed

unstressed

/ (ʌnˈstrɛst) /

adjective

carrying relatively little stress; unemphasized
phonetics of, relating to, or denoting the weakest accent in a word or breath group, which in some languages, such as English or German, is also associated with a reduction in vowel quality to a centralized (i) or (a)

prosody (of a syllable in verse) having no stress or accent

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

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