Paroxytone

In linguistics, a paroxytone (Greek: παροξύτονος, paroxýtonos) is a word with either stress (in stress-based languages) or a high accent (in languages with a pitch accent) on the penultimate syllable (that is, the second-to-last syllable). An example of this in English is the word potato. It contrasts with proparoxytone (stress or a high accent on the antepenultimate — third-to-last — syllable), and oxytone (stress or a high accent on the ultimate — last — syllable).

In English, most words ending in -ic are paroxytones: músic, frántic, and phonétic but not rhétoric, aríthmetic (noun), and Árabic.

In Italian and Portuguese as well as Spanish, most words are paroxytones. In Polish, almost all multisyllabic words are paroxytones except for certain verb conjugations and a few words of foreign origin.

In medieval Latin lyric poetry, a paroxytonic line or half-line is one in which the penultimate syllable is stressed, as in the second half of the verse "Estuans intrinsecus || ira vehementi."

See also

• Barytone
• Oxytone
• Penult
• Perispomenon
• Proparoxytone
• Properispomenon
• Stress (linguistics)