adjective
- uttered, or to be uttered, with emphasis; strongly expressive.
- using emphasis in speech or action.
- forceful; insistent: a big, emphatic man; I must be emphatic about this particular.
- very impressive or significant; strongly marked; striking: the emphatic beauty of sunset.
- clearly or boldly outlined: It stands, like a great, stone dagger, emphatic against the sky.
- Grammar. of or relating to a form used to add emphasis, especially, in English, stressed auxiliary do in affirmative statements, as in He did call you or I do like it.
- Phonetics. having a secondary velar articulation, as certain dental consonants in Arabic.
noun
- an emphatic consonant.
adjective
- expressed, spoken, or done with emphasis
- forceful and positive; definite; directan emphatic personality
- sharp or clear in form, contour, or outline
- important or significant; stressedthe emphatic points in an argument
- phonetics denoting certain dental consonants of Arabic that are pronounced with accompanying pharyngeal constriction
noun
- phonetics an emphatic consonant, as used in Arabic
adj.1708, from Greek emphatikos, variant of emphantikos, from emphainein (see emphasis). Emphatical is earlier (1550s). Related: Emphatically.