Accent refers to the distinctive way people pronounce words, shaped by where they grew up or what language they first learned to speak. Someone from Texas might pronounce words differently than someone from Maine, even though they're both speaking English. When you watch a movie set in Ireland or Australia, you notice the actors' accents right away: the rhythm of their speech, which syllables they stress, and how they form certain sounds.

Everyone has an accent, though it might not seem that way to you when you hear people from your own area. Your accent sounds normal to you, while other accents sound different or distinctive. A person from Atlanta might think someone from Minnesota has an accent, while the Minnesotan thinks the same about the Atlantan.

People who learn a new language often speak it with an accent from their first language. A native Spanish speaker learning English might pronounce certain sounds differently than someone who grew up speaking English, and vice versa. This happens because different languages use different mouth and tongue positions to create sounds.

The word accent can also mean emphasis or special attention, like when you accent a particular word in a sentence to make it stand out, or when an interior designer uses red pillows to accent a gray couch.