emphatic
/ɛmˈfætɪk/
emphatic adjective: characterized by emphasis; forceful.
Adjective
emphatic (comparative more emphatic, superlative most emphatic)
- Characterized by emphasis; forceful.
- Yet when play restarted the Czech was a train that kept on running over Nadal. After breaking Nadal in the opening game of the final set, he went 2-0 up and later took the count to 4-2 with yet another emphatic ace – one of his 22 throughout.2012 June 28, Jamie Jackson, “Wimbledon 2012: Lukas Rosol shocked by miracle win over Rafael Nadal”, in the Guardian
- Synonyms:
- pointed
- Stated with conviction.
- He gave me an emphatic no when I asked him out.
- Belonging to a set of English tense forms comprising the auxiliary verb do plus an infinitive without to.
- Relating to an emphatic pronoun, or a noun with an emphatic suffix attached to it.
- In Irish, the emphatic form of "mé" is "mise".
- Phrayngealized consonants in Arabic, Hebrew, other Northwest Semitic languages, and Berber languages.
- Antonyms:
- plain
- Ejective consonants in Ge'ez, Amharic, other Ethiopic Semitic languages, Chadic and Cushitic languages.
- Antonyms:
- plain
- Referring to the above consonants as well as /ħ/ and /ʕ/ (these being seen as emphatic equivalents of /h/ and /ʔ/).
Noun
emphatic (plural emphatics)
emphatic meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Malayalam and Kannada
emphatic in Tamil
- அழுத்தமான, உறுதியான, வலுவான
emphatic in Urdu
- واثق, زوردار
emphatic in Malayalam
- firm, vehement, wholehearted
- ഊന്നിപ്പറയുന്ന, തറപ്പിച്ചുപറയുന്ന, ഊന്നിയുള്ള, ഉറപ്പിച്ചുള്ള, പ്രത്യേകശക്തി കൊടുത്തുള്ള, ശക്തിയായ
- decisive, conclusive, decided
- നിർണ്ണായകമായ, അസന്ദിഗ്ദ്ധമായ, അന്തിമമായ, തെളിവായ, സ്പഷ്ടമായ, നിസ്സംശയമായ
emphatic in Kannada
- ಸಮರ್ಥವಾಗಿ ಹೇಳಿದ, ಮಹತ್ವ ಪೂರ್ಣವಾದ, ಒತ್ತುಕೊಟ್ಟು ಹೇಳಿದ, ಒತ್ತಿಹೇಳುವ
More languagesFewer languages
- emphatic in Arabic
- مُفَخَّم mufaḵḵam
Examples of emphatic in a sentence
- For example, voiced consonants are devoiced prepausally, and some urban speakers may deemphaticize emphatic consonants.
- This syntactic correctio (self-correction) is not so emphatic as to constitute full ambiguity.
- With an appreciative flick of her thick brows, Nikki replied with an emphatic, “Really!
Synonyms of emphatic
Antonyms
Forms of emphatic
| Adjective | |
|---|---|
| comparative | more emphatic |
| superlative | most emphatic |
| alternative form (obsolete) | emphatick |
| Noun | |
| plural | emphatics |
Origin of emphatic
From Ancient Greek ἐμφατικός (emphatikós, “emphatic”), from ἐμφαίνω (emphaínō, “I show, present”), from ἐν (en, “in”) + φαίνω (phaínō, “I shine, show”); related to ἔμφασις (émphasis) and English emphasis.
Words formed from emphatic
Phrases with emphatic
Words that rhyme with emphatic
- automatic
- chromatic
- static
- systematic
- idiomatic
- attic
- hexachromatic
- thematic
- aromatic
- democratic
- hepatic
- lymphatic
48 more rhymesFewer rhymes
- schematic
- adiabatic
- aristocratic
- asymptomatic
- athematic
- autocratic
- axiomatic
- chiasmatic
- erratic
- fanatic
- fluorochromatic
- interchromatic
- phlegmatic
- prismatic
- psychosomatic
- quadchromatic
- rheumatic
- sciatic
- stromatic
- aerobatic
- altermatic
- aposematic
- asthmatic
- bathochromatic
- bizygomatic
- bureaucratic
- chorochromatic
- chromocratic
- circumzygomatic
- coccochromatic
- curatic
- diabatic
- dyschromatic
- endolymphatic
- episematic
- epistatic
- frontozygomatic
- glymphatic
- goniochromatic
- graphematic
- herostratic
- hydroinformatic
- idiosyncratic
- immunochromatic
- infrazygomatic
- interzygomatic
- katabatic
- kinechromatic
Questions about emphatic
- What does emphatic mean?
- Emphatic means characterized by emphasis; forceful.
- What is emphatic in Tamil?
- Emphatic in Tamil is அழுத்தமான, உறுதியான, வலுவான. See Emphatic meaning in Tamil.
- What part of speech is emphatic?
- Emphatic can be an adjective or a noun.
- How do you pronounce emphatic?
- Emphatic is pronounced /ɛmˈfætɪk/.
Words near emphatic in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: emphatic (page history and authors); emphatic (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); emphatic (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); emphatic (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license); emphatic (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-emphatic.wav.
Cite this entry: “emphatic.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/emphatic. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.