WordReference Random House Unabridged Dictionary of American English © 2025
contras′tive stress′, [Phonet.]
- Phoneticsa stress imposed on a word or syllable contrary to its normal accentuation in order to contrast it with an alternative word or syllable or to focus attention on it, as the stress given to the normally unstressed word of in government of the people, by the people, for the people in order to point up the parallel between of, by, and for and to distinguish of from words such as over or against.