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The most common other words for emphasize are stress, highlight, underline (or underscore), point out and draw attention to. For a physical feature, such as eyes or a waistline, the usual word is accentuate; for giving something more weight than it deserves, play up or overstate.
These words are not interchangeable. Stress means you are telling people something matters. Highlight means you are making one thing easier to notice among others. Accentuate means you are making a quality more visible. The sections below sort the synonyms by those jobs, with a sentence for each, and then cover the noun emphasis, the opposites, and the mistakes that trip people up.
Quick picker
| What you are doing | Words to try | Example |
|---|---|---|
| saying firmly that something matters | stress, underline, underscore, insist, make a point of | The doctor stressed that the full course of antibiotics must be finished. |
| making one item stand out from the rest | highlight, draw attention to, call attention to, spotlight, single out | The report highlights three schools that improved fastest. |
| mentioning something the listener might miss | point out, note, flag, bring up | She pointed out that the deadline falls on a holiday. |
| making a quality or feature more visible | accentuate, bring out, set off, show off, enhance | The dark frame sets off the colours in the painting. |
| putting something at the centre of a story or study | foreground, put front and centre, prioritize | The novel foregrounds the sister rather than the hero. |
| saying it again so it sticks | reiterate, repeat, restate, drive home, hammer home | The coach drove home the same message at every training session. |
| giving it more weight than it deserves | play up, overstate, overemphasize, exaggerate, make much of | The ad plays up the battery life and says nothing about the price. |
When you are telling people it matters
This is the sense of “I want to emphasize that…” in a speech, a letter or a set of instructions. The speaker is adding weight to a point.
- stress – the plainest swap, at home in speech and writing. I can’t stress this enough: back up your files.
- underline – British and international English use it a lot in this figurative sense. The accident underlines the need for better lighting on the bridge.
- underscore – the same idea, more common in American news and business writing. The outage underscores how much the city depends on one power line.
- insist – stronger; it suggests some resistance. He insisted that the mistake was not his.
- make a point of – used for actions, not statements. She made a point of thanking every volunteer by name.
- be clear that / make it clear that – useful in work emails, where “emphasize” can sound stiff. I want to be clear that nobody is losing their job.
Note the shape: you stress something, underline something, insist that or insist on something. The object follows the verb directly for the first two.
When you are making something easier to notice
Here the point is visibility rather than importance. A chart, a summary or a guide picks one thing out of many.
- highlight – from the painter’s word for the brightest part of a picture, and now also the marker pen. The summary highlights the two changes that affect students.
- draw attention to / call attention to – neutral and clear. The campaign drew attention to the closure of rural bus routes.
- spotlight – journalistic; it suggests public attention. The documentary spotlights workers who are usually unseen.
- single out – choose one person or thing from a group, for praise or blame. The judges singled out her second poem.
- point out – mention a fact the other person may not have noticed. He pointed out a typo in the first line.
- flag – office English for “mention so someone can deal with it”. Just flagging that the invoice is two weeks late.
When a feature or quality should stand out
For looks, design, music and taste, English prefers words that suggest bringing something forward rather than arguing for it.
- accentuate – make a feature more noticeable. A belt accentuates the waist. It sounds odd with ideas: “the speech accentuated the risks” is better as stressed or highlighted.
- bring out – reveal a quality that was already there. A pinch of salt brings out the sweetness of the tomatoes.
- set off – make something look better by contrast. The white walls set off the old wooden floor.
- enhance – improve and strengthen. Soft lighting enhances the mood of the room.
- show off – display proudly; in a neutral sense, a design can show off a feature. The open staircase shows off the stonework. Said of people, it is negative.
Words for essays and analysis
When you write about what an author, a study or a piece of data does, “emphasizes” can appear five times on one page. These alternatives each say something a little different:
| Instead of “the author emphasizes” | Use it when |
|---|---|
| underscores / underlines | a point is being reinforced, often by evidence or repetition |
| foregrounds | the writer puts something at the centre of the work (common in literary criticism) |
| draws attention to | the writer makes the reader notice something they might overlook |
| insists / maintains | the writer argues a position against possible objections |
| dwells on | the writer spends a long time on something, sometimes too long |
| gives prominence to | a topic gets more space or a more visible place than others |
Example: Orwell does not simply describe the hanging; he dwells on the prisoner stepping round a puddle, which draws attention to how alive the man still is. Two different verbs, two different claims about the writing.
With data, write the figures highlight or the results underline. Many style guides treat data as plural in formal academic writing (the data show), though the data shows is widely accepted elsewhere.
Other words for emphasis (the noun)
If the sentence uses the noun, change the noun rather than forcing a verb in:
- stress: The course lays stress on spoken practice.
- weight: The panel gave more weight to experience than to grades.
- priority: Safety is the priority this year.
- prominence: The story was given prominence on the front page.
- focus: The focus of the meeting shifted to costs. (For more on this word, see another word for focus.)
- importance: She stressed the importance of sleep.
The fixed phrases are put emphasis on, place emphasis on and lay emphasis on, all followed by on. The verb takes no on, which is the mistake below.
The opposite of emphasize
- play down / downplay: The company downplayed the size of the data leak.
- understate: To call the storm “a bit of rain” understates it.
- gloss over: deal with something quickly to hide a problem. The report glosses over the delays.
- skate over: much the same, more informal.
- de-emphasize: neutral, used in planning and policy. The new syllabus de-emphasizes memorizing dates.
Mistakes to avoid
| Avoid | Write | Why |
|---|---|---|
| We must emphasize on safety. | We must emphasize safety. / We must put emphasis on safety. | The verb takes a direct object; only the noun takes on. |
| The teacher stressed on grammar. | The teacher stressed grammar. / laid stress on grammar. | Same pattern as emphasize. “Stress on” as a verb is common in Indian English but not in standard British or American writing. |
| I want to highlight on two points. | I want to highlight two points. | Highlight is transitive too. |
| Let me reiterate again. | Let me reiterate. / Let me say it again. | Reiterate already means “say again”. |
| The minister accentuated the dangers. | The minister stressed the dangers. | Accentuate suits features and qualities, not arguments. |
| emphasise / emphasize (mixed in one text) | pick one and keep it | Both spellings are correct: -ise is common in British English, -ize in American English and in Oxford spelling. |
One more, about style rather than grammar: emphasis loses force when everything has it. A paragraph where every point is “crucial”, “vital” or “key” emphasizes nothing. Choose the one point that matters most and stress that.
Emphasis in speech
In speaking, people emphasize with the voice as much as with words. Putting stress on a different word changes the meaning of the same sentence:
- I didn’t take the money. (Someone else did.)
- I didn’t take the money. (I took something else.)
- I didn’t take the money. (A flat denial.)
In writing, italics do this job. Bold and capital letters do it too, but they read as shouting when used often.
Practice
Choose the best word for each gap.
- The new frame really ______ the blue in her eyes. (stresses / brings out)
- In her email, the manager ______ that the office will be closed on Friday. (pointed out / accentuated)
- The study ______ the risks of sitting for long periods. (underlines / sets off)
- The politician tried to ______ the scandal, calling it “a minor admin error”. (play down / play up)
- Our teacher ______ the importance of reading the question twice. (stressed / stressed on)
- The museum’s new display ______ women scientists who were left out of older exhibitions. (spotlights / insists)
Answers: 1 brings out (a quality that was already there); 2 pointed out (mentioning a fact); 3 underlines (reinforcing a point); 4 play down (the opposite of emphasize); 5 stressed (no on after the verb); 6 spotlights (making people notice).
Quick answers
What is a more formal word for emphasize?
Underscore, underline and foreground are the most formal; reiterate works when you are repeating a point on purpose.
What is a simpler word for emphasize?
Stress, or a phrase such as make clear or point out.
Is “highlight” the same as “emphasize”?
Close, but not the same. You highlight something to make it noticed among other things; you emphasize it to say it is important. A list can highlight three items without claiming they are the most important.
Emphasize or emphasise?
Both are correct. Use emphasize for American readers and either for British readers, as long as you are consistent.
For other everyday words with sharper alternatives, see another word for important, another word for show and another word for explain. For figures of speech and the ways writers add weight to an idea, start with the figurative language guide.