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Acute accent

Notation
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

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The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

A diacritical mark (´) indicating stress or high pitch on a vowel in poetry.

Detailed Definition
The acute accent (´) is used in many languages and poetic traditions to mark stressed syllables or elevated pitch, especially in Romance languages and classical prosody; in poetry, it ensures correct pronunciation, preserves metrical integrity, and can signal emotional intensity or rhythmic emphasis crucial to the verse’s musicality.
Example
Example in poetry:
In French poetry, the acute accent appears in words like "café" to indicate stress and pronunciation; Spanish poets use "más" with an acute accent to distinguish it from the conjunction "mas"; In Portuguese verse, "pássaro" uses an acute accent to mark stressed syllables; Emily Dickinson occasionally used acute accents in manuscript variants to guide recitation rhythm; In transliterated Greek poetry, acute accents mark pitch accents on vowels like "á"; Modern experimental poets may use acute accents diacritically to signal emphasis, as in "réverie".
Additional Notes
Acute accent: In poetic notation, the acute accent (´) often marks stress or pitch emphasis in metrical or linguistic analysis; commonly used in scansion to indicate a stressed syllable in classical or quantitative meter, and appears in languages like French or Spanish to denote pronunciation or lexical distinction—poets may employ it to guide recitation rhythm or signal foreign diction.
Also Known As
Acute acute mark stress mark
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