Heighten

//ˈhaɪ̯.tən// verb

verb ·Moderate ·High school level

Definitions

Verb
  1. 1
    To make high; to raise higher; to elevate.

    "Black Bridge, near Machynlleth, is being heightened by one metre in a £3.6 million project to reduce delays caused by flooding."

  2. 2
    make more intense, stronger, or more marked wordnet
  3. 3
    To advance, increase, augment, make larger, more intense, stronger etc.

    "to heighten beauty"

  4. 4
    increase the level of wordnet
  5. 5
    make (one's senses) more acute wordnet
Show 3 more definitions
  1. 6
    make more extreme; raise in quantity, degree, or intensity wordnet
  2. 7
    become more extreme wordnet
  3. 8
    increase the height of wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
enhanceintensifysharpenadvanceaccelerateadd to

Antonyms

All antonyms
lessen

Example

More examples

"The lessons learned from the annals of history on peak wood should heighten our awareness of the consequences of the limits of natural resources."

Etymology

From Middle English heightenen, hyghtenen, equivalent to height + -en (verbal suffix).

Related phrases

heighten up

More for "heighten"

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.