unstressed
/ʌnˈstrɛst
/adjective
1 Phonetics (Of a syllable) not pronounced with stress.Here's what they had to say - as you'll see, they got the wrong answer, because they perceive that they pronounce unstressed syllables differently from one another....
- The ways in which stressed and unstressed syllables can be arranged in English verse have come to be named after the various kinds of Greek ‘foot’ they seem to resemble, when one mistranslates ‘long syllable’ as ‘stressed syllable’.
- Compared with most native English speech patterns, Hiberno-English speech has longer and swifter rhythmic runs, with a far higher proportion of unstressed to stressed syllables.
2Not subjected to stress: a well-balanced, unstressed person...
- He looked totally unstressed when I dropped into Ovation in York's Goodram-gate, just near Monk Bar, the other day after being knocked out by the exotic silk and velvet numbers in the window.
- He suggests shifting more resources to the Army & Marines from the relatively unstressed Navy & Air Force.
- However I suppose Howard and his cohorts cannot appreciate that such problems exist, because they can always use the luxurious and unstressed private health system.
