Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- v. To increase the scope of; extend.
- v. To make greater in power, influence, stature, or reputation.
- v. To make appear greater; exaggerate: aggrandize one argument while belittling another.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- To make great or greater in power, wealth, rank, or honor; exalt: as, to aggrandize a family.
- To magnify or exaggerate.
- To widen in scope; increase in size or intensity; enlarge; extend; elevate.
- Synonyms To honor, dignify, advance, elevate, give luster to.
- To grow or become greater.
- Also spelled aggrandise.
Wiktionary
- v. transitive To make great; to enlarge; to increase; as.
- v. transitive To make great or greater in power, rank, honor, or wealth; applied to persons, countries, etc.
- v. transitive To make appear great or greater; to exalt.
- v. intransitive To increase or become great.
GNU Webster's 1913
- v. To make great; to enlarge; to increase.
- v. To make great or greater in power, rank, honor, or wealth; -- applied to persons, countries, etc.
- v. To make appear great or greater; to exalt.
- v. obsolete To increase or become great.
WordNet 3.0
- v. add details to
Etymologies
- French agrandir, agrandiss-, from Old French : a-, to (from Latin ad-; see ad-) + grandir, to grow larger (from Latin grandīre, from grandis, large). (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Re: Frederic Wakeman's review of China Men [NYR, August 14]: I did not write the myths to "aggrandize" my family and other Chinese Americans by connecting us to the high culture of China.”
“Ill-fare malefits do not 'benefit the poor' at the expense of the rich; they aggrandize the power-seeker at the expense of those who value freedom-from-aggression.”
“Much easier for two elites to unite on their true common ground: aggrandize their own money and power, and the populations they rule take the hindmost.”
The Huffington Post: Ian Fletcher: Appeasers or Cold Warriors: Must America Confront China?
“But using the authority of "God" to justify unjust acts and to aggrandize personal power has lead to today's state, where the very word "God" has become a subject of debate, rather than a transcendent authority for good.”
The Huffington Post: Ralph Singh: Interfaith Storytelling For A More Perfect Union
“But not only does he disaggregate the issue, he, along with others failed to aggrandize the issue.”
“Inc. wants everyone working 60 hours a week for one of its divisions, then spending all they make with its other divisions. everyone in the hive, working to support and aggrandize the Wall St.Queens. the new world order is directed from Boardrooms, not from Capitol Hill.”
“Does this mean you are admitting there's no media conspiracy to aggrandize Obama's performance?”
“But that didn't temper their zeal to use the tainted statistics to aggrandize their boss before the election last year.”
“Holland to attempt to aggrandize his sorry self at the cost of their valor.”
“GIving American's false promises to ingratiate himself, to aggrandize himself – no wonder his polls numbers are heading south.”
Obama leaning towards support for TARP funds to pay for jobs bill
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘aggrandize’.
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important
shamanism, consol, sanguine, iffy, affinity, concatenation, honed, innumberable, aiden, inexorable, vet, suss and 176 more...
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Test Prep or Just for fun
Building a list for standardized test prep or just for learning some new words! Please add any words that you feel are important for the SAT/GRE/GMAT etc...
throng, morass, parley, facile, kismet, strife, jetsam, carrion, annex, harbinger, vestige, surreptitious and 575 more...
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GRE Barron's 800
abate, abdicate, aberrant, abeyance, abject, abjure, abscission, abscond, abstemious, abstinence, abysmal, accretion and 787 more...
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Rare Words - A
Not just rare words, but thousands of RARE WORDS WITH DEFINITIONS.
If you want to see the definitions, too, go to
http://phrontistery.i...aba, abacinate, abactor, abaculus, abaft, abampere, abapical, abarticular, abasement, abasia, abask, abatis and 1214 more...
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Interesting words
A list of words that are odd or words that I have looked up.
concupiscence, brize, scree, scoria, forestaff, spanaemia, valetudinarianism, distasture, pyrethrum, laudanum, gentian, bicameral and 11250 more...
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GRE 2014
abase, abate, abdicate, aberrant, abeyance, abhor, abjure, abortive, abound, abrasive, abreast, abridge and 1577 more...
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From reading
Collected from reading
venerate, reprobate, reticent, adoration, ethereal, ephemeral, equivocal, contumacious, heinous, solicitous, agnostic, aberration and 335 more...
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phrontistery - a
from phrontistery.info
aba, abacinate, abactor, abaculus, abaft, abampere, abapical, abarticular, abasement, abasia, abask, abatis and 1214 more...
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06-13 GRE list
churlish, unswear, abnegate, abjure, state, indemnification, adumbrated, reny, abash, recondite, rescission, esoteric and 258 more...
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good to know
sardonic, concordance, acerbic, onerous, saccharine, muliebrity, fugacious, evanescent, gambit, capricious, liaison, fallacious and 18 more...
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to memorize
words i need to memorize
aberrant, abscond, advocate, aggrandize, amalgamate, ambiguous, ambrosial, anomalous, antediluvian, antipathy, arbitrate, assuage and 163 more...
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1000 words
abdicate, aberration, abet, abide, abject, ablution, abnegate, aboriginal, abortive, abrogate, abstemious, abstruse and 78 more...
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5000 FREE SAT Words
abase, abbess, abbey, abbot, abdicate, abdomen, abdominal, abduction, abed, aberration, abet, abeyance and 229 more...
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Reading Vocab
ulterior, warrant, syllogism, precious, impiety, maroon, aigrette, batiste, topsy-turvy ago, midnight crush, cantankerous, slovenly and 180 more...
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GRE Words
abjure, unswear, state, rescission, indemnification, ab, reny, abnegate, vitiated, vitiate, adumbrated, abash and 378 more...
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Words I Know
List of most of the words I've learned
garner, abase, abate, abdicate, abduct, aberration, abet, abhor, abide, abject, abjure, abnegation and 1046 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for aggrandize.
qroqqa Etymologically or morphologically unusual: it contains an '-ize' suffix (and is usually so spelt), but not the '-ize' suffix. It is in fact the French suffix found in 'advertise' and possibly 'chastise'. Nov 26, 2008
Prolagus Now you *must* tell us which song... Nov 26, 2008
alisonrobin I first heard this word in what has become my favorite song. It's the only time I've had to turn to a dictionary to look up something from song lyrics! Nov 26, 2008
oroboros aggRAndiZE. Build up vs. tear down. Aug 22, 2008