Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • transitive verb To increase the scope of; extend.
  • transitive verb To make greater in power, influence, stature, or reputation.
  • transitive verb To consider to be or cause to appear greater than is really the case; exaggerate.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To make great or greater in power, wealth, rank, or honor; exalt: as, to aggrandize a family.
  • To magnify or exaggerate.
  • To widen in scope; increase in size or intensity; enlarge; extend; elevate.
  • Synonyms To honor, dignify, advance, elevate, give luster to.
  • To grow or become greater.
  • Also spelled aggrandise.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • intransitive verb obsolete To increase or become great.
  • transitive verb To make great; to enlarge; to increase.
  • transitive verb To make great or greater in power, rank, honor, or wealth; -- applied to persons, countries, etc.
  • transitive verb To make appear great or greater; to exalt.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb transitive To make great; to enlarge; to increase; as,
  • verb transitive To make great or greater in power, rank, honor, or wealth; applied to persons, countries, etc.
  • verb transitive To make appear great or greater; to exalt.
  • verb intransitive To increase or become great.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb add details to

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[French agrandir, agrandiss-, from Old French : a-, to (from Latin ad-; see ad–) + grandir, to grow larger (from Latin grandīre, from grandis, large).]

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Examples

Comments

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  • aggRAndiZE. Build up vs. tear down.

    August 23, 2008

  • I first heard this word in what has become my favorite song. It's the only time I've had to turn to a dictionary to look up something from song lyrics!

    November 26, 2008

  • Now you *must* tell us which song...

    November 26, 2008

  • Etymologically or morphologically unusual: it contains an '-ize' suffix (and is usually so spelt), but not the '-ize' suffix. It is in fact the French suffix found in 'advertise' and possibly 'chastise'.

    November 26, 2008