- intensify
- intensify, aggravate, heighten, enhance mean to increase markedly in degree or measure.Intensify implies a deepening or strengthening of a thing or especially of its characteristic quality{
a clear atmosphere intensifies the blue of the sky
}{an unfortunate atmosphere . . . that intensifies the suspicions with which the hardheaded and skeptical naturally approach such revolutionary claims— Flew
}{historical circumstances of recent years have conspired to intensify nationalism— Huxley
}Aggravate implies a manifest increase in the seriousness of a situa-tion or condition that is already unpleasant or difficult{false rumors that aggravate racial animosities
}{truth and frankness dispel difficulties, but the attempt at repressive moral discipline only aggravates them— Russell
}{these considerable defects in a parish priest were aggravated rather than offset by his talents as an orator— Anthony West
}Heighten and enhance both imply a lifting or raising; heighten, however, tends to imply a lifting above the ordinary, the trite, or the commonplace, and a consequent increase in sharpness and poignancy, and enhance a lifting above the norm or the average in desirability or attractiveness by the addition of something that increases the value, charm, or prestige of the thing enhanced{a dramatist heightens the effect of his scenes by rapidity of the action and he enhances his dialogue by the addition of witty repartee
}{had heightened his apprecia-tion of the more austere pleasures of the afternoon— Archibald Marshall
}{a painter discards many trivial points of exactness, in order to heighten the truthfulness of a few fundamentals— Montague
}{Augustus sought. . . in every way to enhance its [the Roman Senate's] prestige and dignity— Buchan
}Analogous words: accentuate, emphasize, stress, accent (see corresponding nouns at EMPHASIS): magnify, aggrandize, *exaltAntonyms: temper: mitigate, allay: abate (sense 2)
New Dictionary of Synonyms. 2014.
