Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Having an acute accent on the next to last syllable. Used of some words in Greek and certain Romance languages, such as French and Portuguese.
  • noun A paroxytone word.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To write or pronounce with an acute accent on the penultimate: as, to paroxytone a word.
  • In Gr. grammar, having, or characterized by, an acute accent on the penultimate syllable.
  • noun In Gr. grammar, a word which has an acute accent on the penultimate syllable.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Gr. Gram.) A word having an acute accent on the penultimate syllable.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective of a word Having the stress or accent on the penultimate syllable.
  • noun A paroxytone word.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun word having stress or acute accent on the next to last syllable

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Greek paroxutonos : para-, beside; see para– + oxutonos, oxytone; see oxytone.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Ancient Greek παροξύτονος (paroksutonos, "paroxytone"), from παρά (para, "beyond, next to") + ὀξύτονος (oksutonos, "oxytone"), from ὀξύς (oksus, "sharp, acute") + τόνος (tonos, "pitch, accent").

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Examples

  • I suspect that ειθε is paroxytone and γενοιμην is properispomenon but those are total guesses.

    languagehat.com: A PLATE OF GREEK. 2005

  • And all hearts were touched and turned to her voice, shining like a young star, shining clearer as the voice intoned the pro-paroxytone and more faintly as the cadence died.

    A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man 2003

  • In both these sequences the end of all the strophes is paroxytone.

    The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume 12: Philip II-Reuss 1840-1916 1913

  • If anybody giggles when you say it as a paroxytone, that's their problem, not yours.

    Discover Blogs 2010

  • If anybody giggles when you say it as a paroxytone, that's their problem, not yours.

    Discover Blogs 2010

  • PHONOLOGICAL DIFFERENCES - WORD STRESS Words in Portuguese are predominantly paroxytone, and when they are one of the other two options, often there is an accent to indicate so.

    Recently Uploaded Slideshows 2009

  • PHONOLOGICAL DIFFERENCES - WORD STRESS Words in Portuguese are predominantly paroxytone, and when they are one of the other two options, often there is an accent to indicate so.

    Recently Uploaded Slideshows 2009

Comments

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  • JM met a paroxytone with a cute accent.

    May 11, 2011