: tending to express oneself in forceful speech or to take decisive action
3
: attracting special attention
4
: constituting or belonging to a set of tense forms in English consisting of the auxiliary do followed by an infinitive without to that are used to facilitate rhetorical inversion or to emphasize something
They were emphatic about their political differences.
the governor issued an emphatic denial of all charges
Recent Examples on the Web
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to
show current usage.Read More
Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors.
Send us feedback.
Christian Petersen / Getty Images The emphatic victory capped off a dominant run through March Madness for the Bruins, led by 6-foot-7 senior center Lauren Betts, who led the team in scoring in four of their six games.—👁 Image Austin Turner, CBS News, 5 Apr. 2026 Winning Monday night would be an emphatic statement for college basketball posterity.—👁 Image Dom Amore, Hartford Courant, 5 Apr. 2026 Hernandez was emphatic that nobody in her family bullied Rabell, who prior to landing at Hernandez’s home had been a client of DCF’s Adult Protective Services program.—👁 Image Carol Marbin Miller, Miami Herald, 2 Apr. 2026 LeVota’s candidacy for county executive directly contradicts one of his most frequent and emphatic campaign promises leading up to his interim tenure.—👁 Image Ilana Arougheti, Kansas City Star, 31 Mar. 2026 See All Example Sentences for emphatic
Word History
Etymology
borrowed from French & Late Latin; French emphatique "forcefully expressive," going back to Middle French, borrowed from Late Latin emphaticus, borrowed from Greek emphatikós "expressive, indicative," from empha-, stem in noun derivation of emphaínein "to exhibit, display, indicate" + -t-, verbal adjective formative + -ikos-ic entry 1 — more at emphasis
