Augments

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. Adds to something in order to increase its size, number, or effect
2. Enhances or improves by making something greater or more substantial
3. Makes something bigger or more intense through additional input or support

Etymology: "Augments" is the third-person singular form of "augment", a verb meaning to make something larger or more substantial. The root is the Latin verb "augere", "to increase", which also gave English "author" and "auction" through quite different routes. Its noun form "augmentum" meant an increase or growth, so the verb carries the sense of adding to something that already exists. The verb reached English from Middle French "augmenter", which descended from Late Latin "augmentare". Medieval English speakers borrowed it during the Middle English period, and the word kept its original idea of growing a thing by addition. Unlike many Latin-derived verbs, "augment" stayed close to its literal sense of enlargement rather than shifting toward abstract meanings.

Synonyms: increases, enhances, boosts, amplifies, magnifies

Antonyms: decreases, reduces, diminishes, lessens, subtracts