As technical terms, “accent” and “stress” are not synonyms. The former term is more general.
- Hockett (1958), a pag.47

We are generally more aware of “accent” (or “stress”) in English than we are of intonation, perhaps because we notice that it helps to distinguish some pairs of words that are alike in spelling (‘ínvalid’ versus ‘inválid’), or because it is a point on which both children and foreign learners make amusing mistakes.
- Hockett (1958), a pag.47