prosody, inflection - the patterns of stress and intonation in a language

accentuation - the use or application of an accent; the relative prominence of syllables in a phrase or utterance

pitch accent, tonic accent - emphasis that results from pitch rather than loudness

word accent, word stress - the distribution of stresses within a polysyllabic word

sentence stress - the distribution of stresses within a sentence

vasoconstrictive, vasoconstrictor - any agent that causes a narrowing of an opening of a blood vessel: cold or stress or nicotine or epinephrine or norepinephrine or angiotensin or vasopressin or certain drugs; maintains or increases blood pressure

psychological science, psychology - the science of mental life

mental strain, nervous strain, strain - (psychology) nervousness resulting from mental stress; "his responsibilities were a constant strain"; "the mental strain of staying alert hour after hour was too much for him"

yips - nervous tension that causes an athlete to fail (especially causes golfers to miss short putts); "to avoid the yips he changed his style of putting"

breaking point - (psychology) stress at which a person breaks down or a situation becomes crucial

natural philosophy, physical science, physics - the science of matter and energy and their interactions

force - (physics) the influence that produces a change in a physical quantity; "force equals mass times acceleration"

tension - (physics) a stress that produces an elongation of an elastic physical body; "the direction of maximum tension moves asymptotically toward the direction of the shear"

breaking point - the degree of tension or stress at which something breaks

emphasis, accent - special importance or significance; "the red light gave the central figure increased emphasis"; "the room was decorated in shades of gray with distinctive red accents"

difficulty - a condition or state of affairs almost beyond one's ability to deal with and requiring great effort to bear or overcome; "grappling with financial difficulties"

background, play down, downplay - understate the importance or quality of; "he played down his royal ancestry"

set off, bring out - direct attention to, as if by means of contrast; "This dress accentuates your nice figure!"; "I set off these words by brackets"

re-emphasise, re-emphasize - emphasize anew; "The director re-emphasized the need for greater productivity"

bear down - pay special attention to; "The lectures bore down on the political background"

evince, express, show - give expression to; "She showed her disappointment"

topicalize - emphasize by putting have stress on or by moving to the front of the sentence; "Speakers topicalize more often than they realize"; "The object of the sentence is topicalized in what linguists call `Yiddish Movement'"

point up - emphasize, especially by identification; "This novel points up the racial problems in England"

press home, ram home, drive home - make clear by special emphasis and try to convince somebody of something; "drive home a point or an argument"; "I'm trying to drive home these basic ideas"

emphasise, underline, underscore, emphasize - give extra weight to (a communication); "Her gesture emphasized her words"

enounce, enunciate, pronounce, sound out, articulate, say - speak, pronounce, or utter in a certain way; "She pronounces French words in a funny way"; "I cannot say `zip wire'"; "Can the child sound out this complicated word?"

afflict - cause great unhappiness for; distress; "she was afflicted by the death of her parents"

rack - stretch to the limits; "rack one's brains"