Dictionary
em•phat•ic
Pronunciation: (em-fat'ik), [key]—
adj.
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. Gram.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. Phonet.having a secondary velar articulation, as certain dental consonants in Arabic.
—
n.
an emphatic consonant.
Random House Unabridged Dictionary, Copyright © 1997, by Random House, Inc., on Infoplease.