Intensifier

noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    That which intensifies.
  2. 2
    a modifier that has little meaning except to intensify the meaning it modifies wordnet
  3. 3
    A word or particle that heightens the intensity of meaning of a term.

    "“Plus-” and “doubleplus-” are both intensifiers that replace words of different extremities, and the words very and extremely respectively. So words like great, excellent and horrible are rendered redundant in Newspeak, replaced by “plusgood”, “doubleplusgood” and “doubleplusungood” respectively. Note how “un-” has to follow the intensifier prefix."

  4. 4
    A chemical agent used to intensify the lights or shadows of a photograph.

Synonyms

All synonyms
expletiveintensive

Example

More examples

"In informal, everyday speech, the word "literally" is often used incorrectly as an intensifier."

Etymology

From intensify + -er; from the most common use of such terms, to intensify an adjective.

Related phrases

self-intensifier

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