noun
- Plural of oxytone; words or syllables in which the stress or accent falls on the final syllable.
Usage: linguistics; technical term used in phonology and classical language studies
Examples
- In Greek, oxytones are words with the acute accent on the last syllable.
- The linguist explained that oxytones differ from paroxytones in their stress placement.
- Many French words are oxytones, with emphasis on the final syllable.
- Students of classical languages must learn to identify oxytones correctly.
- The dictionary marked oxytones with a special accent symbol.