stress, emphasis, accent: the relative prominence of a syllable or musical note (especially with regard to stress or pitch); "he put the stress on the wrong syllable" tension, tenseness, stress: (psychology) a state of mental or emotional strain or suspense; "he suffered from fatigue and emotional tension"; "stress is a vasoconstrictor" stress: (physics) force that produces strain on a physical body; "the intensity of stress is expressed in units of force divided by units of area" stress, focus: special emphasis attached to something; "the stress was more on accuracy than on speed" stress, strain: difficulty that causes worry or emotional tension; "she endured the stresses and strains of life"; "he presided over the economy during the period of the greatest stress and danger"- R.J.Samuelson stress, emphasize, emphasise, punctuate, accent, accentuate: to stress, single out as important; "Dr. Jones emphasizes exercise in addition to a change in diet" stress, accent, accentuate: put stress on; utter with an accent; "In Farsi, you accent the last syllable of each word" try, strain, stress: test the limits of; "You are trying my patience!"