Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Expressed or performed with emphasis.
  • adjective Forceful and definite in expression or action.
  • adjective Standing out in a striking and clearly defined way.
  • adjective Linguistics Pharyngealized, velarized, or ejective. Used of consonants in Semitic languages.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Uttered, or to be uttered, with emphasis or stress of voice: as, the emphatic words in a sentence.
  • Forcibly significant; expressive; impressive: as, an emphatic gesture.
  • Synonyms Expressive, earnest, energetic, striking.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Uttered with emphasis; made prominent and impressive by a peculiar stress of voice; laying stress; deserving of stress or emphasis; forcible; impressive; strong
  • adjective Striking the sense; attracting special attention; impressive; forcible.
  • adjective Forceful and definite in expression or action; -- of statements, actions, or sections of documents.
  • adjective Sudden and strong; -- of statements.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Characterized by emphasis.
  • adjective Stated with conviction.
  • adjective belonging to set of English tense forms comprising the auxiliary verb do + an infinitive without to
  • adjective phonology of obstruent consonants in Semitic languages.
  • noun phonology an emphatic consonant

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective forceful and definite in expression or action
  • adjective sudden and strong
  • adjective spoken with emphasis

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Medieval Latin emphaticus, from Greek emphatikos, from emphainein, to exhibit, display; see emphasis.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Ancient Greek ἐμφατικός (emphatikos, "emphatic"), from Ancient Greek ἔμφασις (emphasis) (English emphasis), from ἐμφαίνω (emphainō, "I show, present"), from ἐν (en, "in") + φαίνω (phainō, "I shine, show").

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