In music notation, an accent is a type of articulation drawn as a short greater-than sign (>) above the staff over the affected note. It is interpreted as an emphasis of the note, making it stronger and heavier without making it very much louder (as a sforzando would).

On the staff, it looks something like this:


    /\                >                                    
---| /-----------------------------------------------------
   |/                                                      
---/------------------*------------------------------------
  /|                 |                                     
-/-|/\---------------|-------------------------------------
|  |  |              |                                     
|--|--|--------------|-------------------------------------
 \ |  |                                                    
--\|_/-----------------------------------------------------
   |                                                       
  \|