The most common and most likely answer to this crossword clue is the 8 letter word EMPHASIS
I've seen this crossword clue in Financial Times
E
M
P
H
A
S
I
S
More clues leading to the result EMPHASIS
- Stress politician in east suffers on island
- Weight, energy and speed unaltered
- Stress English politician has income support initially
- Shapes I’m busting to get attention
- Writer upset over short period is getting stress
- What besets politician currently could be stress
- Weight gained from pie and mash mixed with bit of sugar
- Stress caused by ecstasy and speed unaltered
- Pies and mash prepared by weight
- Stress as he is worried about rise of Theresa May
Buddy explains!
The straight part
We know that "stress" is the straight/definition part of the clue. The straight part is often a synonym or definition, in this case stress = emphasis.The cryptic/wordplay part
In cryptic crossword there's often an wordplay/cryptic part as well.This part involves a more complex hint, such as an anagram, homophone, hidden word, etc.
Sadly, We don't have an explanation for this specific crossword clue yet.
What does EMPHASIS mean?
EMPHASIS noun- Special weight or forcefulness given to something considered important.
- Special attention or prominence given to something.
- Prominence given to a syllable or words, by raising the voice or printing in italic or underlined type.
- The phonetic or phonological feature that distinguishes emphatic consonants from other consonants.
- The use of boldface.