Kiemelés

Kiemelés is a term used in typography and linguistics to denote the act or effect of making a word, phrase, or sentence stand out from surrounding text. In Hungarian, the noun kiemelés is formed from the verb kiemelni (“to highlight, to lift out”) with the suffix -és; the prefix ki- conveys the sense of “out.” The concept covers both visual and structural ways of signaling importance or focus.

In written and digital media, kiemelés can be achieved through various methods. Typographic emphasis includes bold, italics, and underlining; other practices use quotation marks, capitalization, or strategic placement within a sentence to draw attention. In markup and word-processing contexts, kiemelés is implemented with styling commands or tags that render text as bold or italic, or highlight it with color or background. In handwriting, emphasis is often indicated by underlining or enlarging the affected elements.

In linguistics, kiemelés refers to prosodic or syntactic emphasis used in spoken language to mark focus, contrast, or given/new information. It plays a key role in information structure and discourse analysis, shaping how listeners interpret salience and relations among elements in a sentence. Across languages and media, kiemelés serves to guide attention, indicate importance, and clarify meaning, whether for definitions, warnings, terms of discussion, or user instructions.