A mark (´) used to indicate a) the quality or length of a vowel as in French idée b) primary stress, as in Spanish olé c) any stress on a spoken sound or syllable, as in the scanning of a verse.

Acute is also an accent put over vowels in the French language. It looks like the slash (/) character, but smaller, and written immediately above the vowel. For the lowercase 'i', the slash takes the place of the dot, so there is never an accent and the dot together. The HTML character entities for these accented characters are:
Á (Á) and á (á)
É (É) and é (é)
Í (Í) and í (í)
Ó (Ó) and ó (ó)
Ú (Ú) and ú (ú)

shallot tells me that the acute symbol is also used in most Slavic languages, Hungarian and other languages.

A*cute" (#), a. [L. acutus, p. p. of acuere to sharpen, fr. a root ak to be sharp. Cf. Ague, Cute, Edge.]

1.

Sharp at the end; ending in a sharp point; pointed; -- opposed to blunt or obtuse; as, an acute angle; an acute leaf.

2.

Having nice discernment; perceiving or using minute distinctions; penetrating; clever; shrewd; -- opposed to dull or stupid; as, an acute observer; acute remarks, or reasoning.

3.

Having nice or quick sensibility; susceptible to slight impressions; acting keenly on the senses; sharp; keen; intense; as, a man of acute eyesight, hearing, or feeling; acute pain or pleasure.

4.

High, or shrill, in respect to some other sound; -- opposed to grave or low; as, an acute tone or accent.

5. Med.

Attended with symptoms of some degree of severity, and coming speedily to a crisis; -- opposed to chronic; as, an acute disease.

Acute angle Geom., an angle less than a right angle.

Syn. -- Subtile; ingenious; sharp; keen; penetrating; sagacious; sharp-witted; shrewd; discerning; discriminating. See Subtile.

 

© Webster 1913.


A*cute", v. t.

To give an acute sound to; as, he acutes his rising inflection too much.

[R.]

Walker.

 

© Webster 1913.

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