magnify
verb
Simple meaning
To make larger or more important.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
magnuhfySay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈmæɡnəfaɪ
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
verb
transitive
To make (something) larger or more important.
transitive
To make (someone or something) appear greater or more important than it is; to intensify, exaggerate.
transitive
To make (something) appear larger by means of a lens, magnifying glass, telescope etc.
Make large
transitive
To praise, glorify (someone or something, especially God).
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- C1 · Advanced
- Frequency
- Uncommon
- Typical Use
- Primarily written
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: To make (something) larger or more important.
Used this way, magnify is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It suits considered writing and prepared speech.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Serious and weighty
- Usage feel
- Formal and precise
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Inflected forms
Grammatical variations of the same word.
A scientific instrument that magnifies an image.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
Light microscope consisting of a single convex lens that is used to produce an enlarged image.
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.