The act of reducing the importance or prominence given to something; making something seem less important.
From the prefix 'de-' (meaning to reverse or remove) plus 'emphasis' (from Greek 'emphasis' meaning appearance or outward impression). The word emerged in 20th-century English to describe the opposite of emphasis.
Deemphasis is a word that became useful right alongside modern media and PR—it's how politicians and companies talk about downplaying bad news without using the honest word 'hide,' showing how language evolves to describe modern manipulation tactics.
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