Accent
that stress or emphasis given by the voice to a certain syllable or syllables of a word, or to certain notes in a bar of music; also, the peculiar intonation of one spoken language when compared with another. The term further denotes marks used in printing ACCIDENT or writing to show the position of the stress. There is a certain analogy between accent and emphasis , emphasis doing for whole words or clauses of sentences what accent does for single syllables. Marks sometimes called accents are used in mathematics, e. g., a' + b' g., a' + b (read a prime plus b prime). Accent in music is the greater intensity given to certain notes, as distinguished from their length in time and their quality or timbre.
In geometry and trigonometry a circle at the right of a figure indicates degrees, one mark, minutes, two marks, seconds of a degree, as 13° 4' 5". In mensuration and engineering, the mark denotes feet , inches, and lines, as 4' 6" 10"".