accent

The word “accent” means a distinctive way of pronouncing a language, typical of a region, country, or social group. In plain terms, most often refers to a regional or foreign way of pronouncing words, but also covers pronunciation marks and design highlights.

“Accent” is pronounced AK-suhnt (/ˈæk.sɛnt/ in IPA).

Here is “accent” used in a sentence: “She still has a slight French accent after years of living abroad.”

Depending on how it is used, “accent” can be a noun and a verb.

The word “accent” comes from Latin. From Latin accentus, "song added to speech," from ad- ("to") plus canere ("to sing") — literally a "singing toward" a word, referring to spoken stress.

“Accent” is a fairly common word in modern English, usually learned at around the B1 level.

“Accent” has 4 distinct senses listed in this dictionary. The most common is: a distinctive way of pronouncing a language, typical of a region, country, or social group.

An "accent" is a distinctive way of pronouncing a language, typical of a region, country, or social group, so it concerns sound only. A "dialect" includes not just pronunciation but also distinctive vocabulary and grammar. An accent is part of a dialect, but a dialect covers more than pronunciation.

"Pronunciation" is how any individual word or sound is spoken, and it can be judged correct or incorrect word by word. An "accent" is the overall pattern of pronunciation that marks a speaker as belonging to a region or group. Everyone has an accent, but pronunciation is assessed at the level of single words.

An "accent" in writing is a mark placed over a letter to show pronunciation or stress, as in "café" or "résumé." "Diacritic" is the broader technical term for any such mark added to a letter, including accents, tildes, and cedillas. Accent marks are one type of diacritic.