Augment
noun, verb ·Common ·High school level
Definitions
- 1 A grammatical prefix; In some languages, a prefix *é- (अ- (a-) in Sanskrit, ἐ- (e-) in Greek) indicating a past tense of a verb.
"The augment is found in Greek, Indo-Iranian, Armenian and Phrygian."
- 2 A grammatical prefix; Especially Old Irish, a preverb, usually ro-, used to give a verb a resultative or potential meaning.
"Fundamentally the augment characterizes a verbal action viewed from a non-contemporary standpoint, either the moment of speaking (or writing) or a further verbal action."
- 3 A grammatical prefix; In some languages, an additional vowel prepended to the noun prefix.
- 4 An increase.
- 1 To increase; to make larger or supplement. transitive
"The money from renting out a spare room can augment a salary."
- 2 enlarge or increase wordnet
- 3 To grow; to increase; to become greater. intransitive, reflexive
- 4 grow or intensify wordnet
- 5 To slow the tempo or meter, e.g. for a dramatic or stately passage.
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- 6 To increase an interval, especially the largest interval in a triad, by a half step (chromatic semitone).
- 7 To add an augment to. transitive
Example
More examples"And so, knowledge from the past, mixed up with assumptions about that knowledge, which may be more or less appropriate, is used to augment information provided by the senses."
Etymology
From Middle English augmenten, from Middle French augmenter, from Old French augmenter, from Late Latin augmentare (“to increase”), from Latin augmentum (“an increase, growth”), from augere (“to increase”).
Related phrases
More for "augment"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.