Multiplying

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. Increasing in quantity by reproducing or making more of something
2. Becoming more numerous through a process of replication or growth
3. Growing in amount by generating additional units or copies

Etymology: The verb "multiply" comes from Latin "multiplicare", built from "multiplex" (many-fold) and the verb-forming suffix "-ficare", from "facere" (to make). So the core sense is literally "to make many-fold." Its earliest English use was in a mathematical sense, which is still its oldest meaning: to combine a number with itself a given number of times. The idea of growing in number by reproduction came later, and the biblical injunction to be fruitful and multiply, drawn from the Latin Vulgate, helped spread that sense widely. The present participle "multiplying" is simply the "-ing" form of this verb, used here as an adjective-like or gerund-like form, so it inherits the same Latin ancestry. Its meaning is the ongoing process of that multiplying, whether in arithmetic or in living things.

Synonyms: increasing, growing, expanding, augmenting, boosting

Antonyms: decreasing, diminishing, reducing, lessening, declining