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emphatic

 - 2 dictionary results

em⋅phat⋅ic

[em-fat-ik]
–adjective
1. uttered, or to be uttered, with emphasis; strongly expressive.
2. using emphasis in speech or action.
3. forceful; insistent: a big, emphatic man; I must be emphatic about this particular.
4. very impressive or significant; strongly marked; striking: the emphatic beauty of sunset.
5. clearly or boldly outlined: It stands, like a great, stone dagger, emphatic against the sky.
6. Grammar. of or pertaining to a form used to add emphasis, esp., in English, stressed auxiliary do in affirmative statements, as in He did call you or I do like it.
7. Phonetics. having a secondary velar articulation, as certain dental consonants in Arabic.
–noun
8. an emphatic consonant.

Origin:
1700–10; < Gk emphatikós indicative, forceful, equiv. to *emphat(ós) (em- em- 2 + phatós, var. of phantós visible, equiv. to phan-, s. of phaínesthai to appear + -tos adj. suffix) + -ikos -ic


em⋅phat⋅i⋅cal⋅ly, adverb
em⋅phat⋅i⋅cal⋅ness, noun


3. positive, energetic, forcible, pronounced, decided, unequivocal, definite.


3. weak.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2010.
Cite This Source Link To emphatic
em·phat·ic   (ěm-fāt'ĭk)   
adj.  
  1. Expressed or performed with emphasis: responded with an emphatic "no."

  2. Forceful and definite in expression or action.

  3. Standing out in a striking and clearly defined way.


[Medieval Latin emphaticus, from Greek emphatikos, from emphainein, to exhibit, display; see emphasis.]
em·phat'i·cal·ly adv.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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