aggrandize
Americanverb (used with object)
verb
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to increase the power, wealth, prestige, scope, etc, of
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to cause (something) to seem greater; magnify; exaggerate
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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aggrandizesimple
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aggrandizessimple
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have aggrandizedperfect
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has aggrandizedperfect
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am aggrandizingprogressive
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are aggrandizingprogressive
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is aggrandizingprogressive
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have been aggrandizingperfect progressive
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has been aggrandizingperfect progressive
Past
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aggrandizedsimple
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had aggrandizedperfect
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was aggrandizingprogressive
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were aggrandizingprogressive
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had been aggrandizingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of aggrandize
1625–35; < French aggrandiss- (long stem of aggrandir to magnify), equivalent to ag- ag- + grand ( see grand) + -iss -ish 2, irregular equated with -ize ( def. )
Explanation
If you are a window washer, but you refer to yourself as a "vista enhancement specialist," then you are aggrandizing your job title — that is, making it sound greater than it is. The verb aggrandize not only means "to make appear greater"; it can also be used to mean simply "to make greater." If you buy an estate and sink millions of dollars into its improvement, then you are actually aggrandizing the estate. If you are making yourself seem greater, then people may say you are "self-aggrandizing."
Vocabulary lists containing aggrandize
100 SAT Words Beginning with "A"
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Face It: Selfie Vocab
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
“Experience shows that it is not wise to trust human cupidity where it has the opportunity to aggrandize itself at the expense of others,” they wrote.
From Barron's ● May 2, 2026
Yet there are none of the trappings of schools that aggrandize the M.B.A. aspirant as a master of the universe in waiting: grand atriums, leather-chaired lounges, chandelier-festooned ceilings.
From New York Times ● Jan. 5, 2023
“There was never looking for credit, never looking to aggrandize himself,” Rendell told AP.
From Seattle Times ● Dec. 21, 2022
It feels odd to talk about, because I don’t want to aggrandize myself.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 20, 2019
Make new hopes shine through the flesh they fray, New fears aggrandize the rags and tatters: To bring the invisible full into play!
From Browning and His Century by Clarke, Helen Archibald
Jackson fired back that Barrett’s approach actually aggrandizes the role of the court and elevates it over Congress.
From Slate ● Jun. 11, 2026
With Iowa fully in the rearview mirror, expect to hear a variation on the phrase “Iowa picks corn, New Hampshire picks presidents,” a favorite local slogan that aggrandizes the state’s role in the nominating process.
From New York Times ● Jan. 17, 2024
Trinidad Gonzales, a history professor at South Texas College, said the pamphlet aggrandizes Manifest Destiny, the belief that American settlers had the God-given right to expand across North America.
From Salon ● Sep. 27, 2022
It seems like, among other things a miserable mindset, one that aggrandizes your ego but withers your soul.
From The Guardian ● Mar. 19, 2019
Their affection for her has infused into it an element which greatly aggrandizes and ennobles it—an element somewhat analogous to that sentiment of lofty devotion which a loyal subject feels for his queen.
This aggrandized, conceited movement makes it neither a priority nor a concern worthy of more than lip service.
From Washington Post ● Jul. 3, 2021
He did everything to feel aggrandized and powerful.
From Salon ● Jul. 13, 2020
And would the predictable reaction have been helpful, or only further aggrandized terrorism and divided society?
From US News ● Oct. 26, 2016
I think it’s fascinating that, as your role aggrandized there, you took on some of the natural roles for a talented IT executive but you also listed corporate strategy as one of your responsibilities.
From Forbes ● Jun. 16, 2014
The fathers whose sons had played merited a more aggrandized status in the fraternity of older men who queued along the passageway.
From "The Great Santini" by Pat Conroy
It seems aggrandizing and selfish to dwell on it when there are many people who lost everything in the course of that single day.
From Seattle Times ● Sep. 9, 2022
In 2019 alone, “red” museums and memorials, aggrandizing Communist Party history, drew 1.4 billion visits, making them among the most popular destinations in the world.
From New York Times ● Jan. 5, 2022
Fatherhood for me rests somewhere between selfless sacrifice and aggrandizing self-preservation.
From Scientific American ● Jun. 14, 2021
And when aggrandizing accolades start flying — the Los Angeles Philharmonic website says many regard this as the great American opera — it’s time to shout, “Now hold on thar!”
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 5, 2017
Comparisons between men of genius for the sake of aggrandizing the one at the expense of the other are the staple of the meaner kinds of criticism.
From Ralph Waldo Emerson by Holmes, Oliver Wendell
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
