accent

> accent
(1) A regional or individual way of speaking or pronouncing words, as in "a Glasgow accent".
(2) A word meaning "emphasis", as in "In hotel the accent is on the second syllable of the word" or "In fashion this year the accent is on longer skirts".
(3) Any of certain symbols used on some foreign words adopted into English. In modern usage, which has a tendency to punctuate less than formerly was the case, accents are frequently omitted. For example, an actor's part in a play is now usually spelt "role" but originally it was spelt "r(tm)le", the accent on o being called a circumflex. The accent is most likely to be retained if it affects the pronunciation. Thus "cliché" and "divorcé" usually retain the acute accent, as it is called, on the e. On the other hand, the accent known as the cedilla is frequently omitted from beneath the c in words such as "façade/facade", although it is there to indicate that the c is soft, pronounced like an s, rather than a hard sound, pronounced like a k. The grave accent is retained in English in some words and phrases derived from French, as mise en scène.