ə̇mˈfad.]ik, emˈ-, -at], ]ēk adjective
Etymology: Greek emphatikos forcible, expressive, variant of emphantikos, from (assumed) emphantos (verbal of Greek emphainein ) + -ikos -ic
1.
a. : marked by emphasis : uttered with emphasis : made prominent by stress
an emphatic word
an emphatic argument
b. : commanding attention by prominence, forcefulness, or insistence
even more emphatic is the chapter … which comes out frankly for rescuing the Adirondack country from destruction at the hands of eager tourists — C.L.Carmer
unfolding a still more vast and emphatic display in blue and yellow — Dorothy L. Sayers
this document, which may be termed New Jersey's first constitution, contained a particularly emphatic guarantee of religious liberty — American Guide Series: New Jersey
c. : insistent
the point is one worth being rather emphatic about — A.A.Hill
2.
a. : tending to express oneself in emphatic speech or to take habitually brusque or decisive action
a little emphatic man — Charles Dickens
I wish I were unflinching and emphatic , and had big, bushy eyebrows and a Message for the Age — L.P.Smith
b. : markedly forceful
used an emphatic blue pencil freely — W.L.McAtee
3.
a. : attracting special attention : strikingly conspicuous
some emphatic feather or brooch — John Galsworthy
government of the United States had been so commonly on dead center, with not even a party able to enact its wish, that its contrast to government by parliament and cabinet was emphatic — F.L.Paxson
b. : clearly delineated : definite in outline or features
the line of tall fir trees at the lake's edge casting their emphatic shadows on the ice — Jean Stafford
4. of a linguistic form : expressive of special emphasis
the emphatic article in Samoan
especially : constituting or belonging to a set of tense forms in English that consist of the auxiliary do followed by an infinitive without to and are used to facilitate rhetorical inversion (as did see in “only then did he see the danger”), to take the place of a simple verb form normally in negative or interrogative sentences (as did believe in “he did not believe it” or do think in “what do you think?”), or to emphasize (as does work in “but I tell you he does work hard”)
5. of some Semitic consonants : differing from the other member of a pair through being velarized and alveolar rather than dental or being pharyngeal rather than velar
• em·phat·i·cal·ly ]ə̇k(ə)lē, ]ēk-, -li adverb
• em·phat·i·cal·ness ]ə̇kəlnə̇s, ]ēk-\ noun -es