In linguistics, an oxytone (/ˈɒksɪtoʊn/; Ancient Greek: ὀξύτονος, oxýtonos, 'sharp-sounding'[citation needed]) is a word with either stress (in stress-based languages) or a high accent (in languages with a pitch accent) on the ultimate syllable (that is, the last syllable). Examples of this in English are the words correct and reward.

It contrasts with paroxytone (on the penultimate — second-to-last — syllable), and proparoxytone (on the antepenultimate — third-to-last — syllable).

See also