emphasiser

Emphasiser, emphasizer (British and American spellings), is a term used in multiple domains to denote something that makes a part of language, sound, or presentation more noticeable. There is no single, formal definition; rather, the term describes devices, features, or practices that increase salience or impact.

In linguistics and speech, an emphasiser may refer to any mechanism that marks or enhances emphasis on a word or phrase, such as prosodic stress, pitch, volume, or intonation patterns. In phonology and discourse analysis, emphasisers help signal focus, contrast, or sentiment.

In writing and typography, emphasisers include formatting choices like italics, bold type, underlining, capitalization, or punctuation marks used to draw reader attention. Style guides may prefer specific methods of emphasis depending on medium and context.

In audio and media technology, an emphasiser may denote a device or processing technique that makes certain signals or elements more prominent, for example by boosting particular frequency ranges or using compression to increase salience for the listener. In broadcasting, related concepts include emphasis filters that shape frequency response.

In computing and natural language processing, emphasiser components or rules may be used to assign higher salience to particular terms for tasks such as text summarization, highlighting, or generation of emphasis cues in dialogue.

See also: emphasis, emphatic, emphasis mark, prosody, salience, typography, audio processing.