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Definition of "oxytone" [ox•y•tone]

  • Relating to or being a Greek word that has an acute accent on its last syllable. (adjective)
  • Relating to or being a word that has a heavy stress accent on its last syllable. (adjective)
  • A word having the stress or the acute accent on the last syllable. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Use "oxytone" in a sentence
  • "And now I think about it, the Sanskrit accent actually makes a point in favor of the bisyllabic version of the word parśú- which is, due to the consonant 'grade', expected to be oxytone I think."
  • "[2996] Amphilochius's doubt may have arisen from the fact that phagos, the Doric form of phegos, the esculent oak of Homer, is oxytone."