amplification

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. The act or result of amplifying, enlarging, or extending.
2. n. An addition to or expansion of a statement or idea.
3. n. A statement with such an addition.
4. n. Physics The process of increasing the magnitude of a variable quantity, especially the magnitude of voltage, power, or current, without altering any other quality.
5. n. Physics The result of such a process.
6. n. Electronics See gain¹.
7. n. Genetics The process by which extra copies of a gene or a DNA sequence are formed.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. The act of amplifying or enlarging in dimensions; enlargement; extension.
2. n. Specifically.
3. n. In rhetoric, expansion for rhetorical purposes of a narrative, description, argument, or other discourse; a discourse or passage so expanded; an addition made in expanding.
4. n. In logic, an increase in the logical depth (comprehension) of a term without any corresponding decrease of breadth (extension), as the expansion of “plane triangle” into “plane triangle having the sum of its angles equal to two right angles,” which is equivalent to it with respect to extension.
5. n. In microscopy, increase of the visual area, as distinguished from magnification (which see).

Wiktionary

1. n. the act, or result of amplifying, enlarging, extending or adding to
2. n. physics the act, or result of independently increasing some quantity, especially voltage, power or current
3. n. electronics gain
4. n. genetics using the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) for isolating and exponentially amplifying a fragment or sequence of DNA
5. n. organic chemistry A procedure used in the nomenclature of complex organic compounds in which the superatoms of a basic structure (a phane) are replaced by cyclic structures (amplificants)

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. The act of amplifying or enlarging in dimensions; enlargement; extension.
2. n. (Rhet.) The enlarging of a simple statement by particularity of description, the use of epithets, etc., for rhetorical effect; diffuse narrative or description, or a dilating upon all the particulars of a subject.
3. n. The matter by which a statement is amplified.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. addition of extra material or illustration or clarifying detail
2. n. (electronics) the act of increasing voltage or power or current
3. n. the amount of increase in signal power or voltage or current expressed as the ratio of output to input