(dah-GESH) n. Dagesh; emphasis; stress. Any Hebrew letter (except the gutturals aleph, hey, chet, ayin and resh) can have a dot inside of it called a “dagesh mark.” The presence of a dagesh mark may affect the way in which a word is divided into syllables and pronounced. Begedkephat letters may take a dagesh lene (weak stress) or dagesh forte (strong stress).

The dagesh (דגש) or daghesh is a diacritic used in the Hebrew alphabet. It was added to the Hebrew orthography at the same time as the Masoretic system of niqqud (vowel points). It takes the form of a dot placed inside a Hebrew letter and has the effect of modifying the sound in one of two ways.