enlargement

[en-lahrj-muh nt]

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR enlargement ON THESAURUS.COM

noun

an act of enlarging; increase, expansion, or amplification.

anything, as a photograph, that is an enlarged form of something.

anything that enlarges something else; addition: The new wing formed a considerable enlargement to the building.

Origin of enlargement

First recorded in 1530–40; enlarge + -ment

Related formspre·en·large·ment, nounpro·en·large·ment, adjectivere·en·large·ment, noun

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Related Words for enlargement

growth, augmentation, amplification, spread, elongation, aggrandizement, extension

Examples from the Web for enlargement

Contemporary Examples of enlargement

In the heart, it reversed age-induced cardiac hypertrophy (enlargement of the heart).
This Is the Way You’ll Live Forever
Dr. Anand Veeravagu, MD, Tej Azad
May 6, 2014

Historical Examples of enlargement

None of the bookmakers here will ever die of enlargement of the heart.
Old Man Curry
Charles E. (Charles Emmett) Van Loan
In the enlargement of my mother I afford you the means of satisfying Rome.
The Historical Nights Entertainment, Second Series
Rafael Sabatini
My trouble was enlargement of the womb, also had ovarian trouble.
Treatise on the Diseases of Women
Lydia E. Pinkham
But when we have passed through it, what enlargement do we find!
The Autobiography of Madame Guyon
Jeanne Marie Bouvier de La Motte Guyon
The enlargement of the house of the National Legislature had not yet begun.
Charles Carleton Coffin
William Elliot Griffis, D. D.

British Dictionary definitions for enlargement

enlargement

noun

the act of enlarging or the condition of being enlarged

something that enlarges or is intended to enlarge

a photographic print that is larger than the negative from which it is made

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for enlargement

1540s, from enlarge + -ment. Photographic sense is from 1866.