The Words of the Day: Emphasize & Highlight

Have you ever wanted to make sure that people notice what you think is most important? Two very useful English verbs for doing this are “emphasize” and “highlight“. “Emphasize” comes from Greek “emphainein“, “to show, make visible,” through Latin and French before entering English. “Highlight” is much more literal in origin: high + light, originally referring to the brightest or most illuminated part of something. Today, both are extremely common in spoken and written English, especially when we want to draw attention to an important idea, fact, or point.

The main difference is subtle. “Emphasize” means to give something special importance or stress, often through words, tone, or repetition. “Highlight” means to draw attention to something important or particularly noticeable, often by pointing it out as one of the key features or findings. In other words, you emphasize a point, while you often highlight a fact, problem, feature, or achievement. In everyday English, using these verbs makes your speech sound more natural and precise.

Here are some common collocations: emphasize the importance of, emphasize a point, strongly emphasize, repeatedly emphasize, highlight the importance of, highlight a problem, highlight key findings, highlight the differences, highlight the benefits, highlight the need for. Here are some examples in context. Examples:

1. The teacher emphasized the importance of regular reading.
2. I want to emphasize one important point.
3. The report highlights the need for urgent action.
4. She highlighted the main differences between the two approaches.
5. The speaker strongly emphasized that education should be accessible to everyone.
6. This example highlights how important context is in communication.

In Turkish, emphasize can usually be translated as vurgulamak, önemini belirtmek, üzerinde durmak, whereas highlight is often öne çıkarmak, dikkat çekmek, vurgulamak. Notice that vurgulamak can be used for both, but the English verbs are not always interchangeable.

Examples in Turkish:

1. Öğretmen düzenli okumanın önemini vurguladı.
   → The teacher emphasized the importance of regular reading.
2. Rapor sorunun ciddiyetine dikkat çekiyor.
   → The report highlights the seriousness of the problem.
3. Konuşmacı bu noktayı özellikle vurguladı.
   → The speaker strongly emphasized this point.
4. Araştırma, iki yaklaşım arasındaki temel farkları ortaya koyuyor.
   → The study highlights the key differences between the two approaches.

One small but important spelling point: emphasize is the standard spelling in American English, while emphasise is traditionally preferred in British English. The pronunciation and meaning are exactly the same. The same -ize/-ise distinction appears in words such as organize/organise and recognize/recognise. For international English, emphasize is perfectly acceptable and very widely used.

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