enrich
Americanverb (used with object)
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enriches,
present (3rd person singular)
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enriched,
past participle, past
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enriching
present participle
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to supply with riches, wealth, abundant or valuable possessions, etc..
Commerce enriches a nation.
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to supply with abundance of anything desirable.
to enrich the mind with knowledge.
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to add greater value or significance to.
Art enriches life.
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to adorn or decorate.
a picture frame enriched with gold.
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to make finer in quality, as by supplying desirable elements or ingredients.
to enrich soil.
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Physics. to increase the proportion of a valuable mineral or isotope in (a substance or material).
The fuel was enriched with uranium 235 for the nuclear reactor.
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Nutrition.
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to restore to (a food) a nutrient that has been lost during an early stage of processing.
to enrich flour with thiamine, iron, niacin, and riboflavin.
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to add vitamins and minerals to (food) to enhance its nutritive value.
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verb
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to increase the wealth of
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to endow with fine or desirable qualities
to enrich one's experience by travelling
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to make more beautiful; adorn; decorate
a robe enriched with jewels
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to improve in quality, colour, flavour, etc
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to increase the food value of by adding nutrients
to enrich dog biscuits with calcium
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to make (soil) more productive, esp by adding fertilizer
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physics to increase the concentration or abundance of one component or isotope in (a solution or mixture); concentrate
to enrich a solution by evaporation
enrich a nuclear fuel
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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enrichernoun
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enrichmentnoun
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enrichedadjective
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self-enrichingadjective
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unenrichingadjective
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enrichinglyadverb
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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enrichsimple
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enrichessimple
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have enrichedperfect
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has enrichedperfect
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am enrichingprogressive
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are enrichingprogressive
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is enrichingprogressive
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have been enrichingperfect progressive
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has been enrichingperfect progressive
Past
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enrichedsimple
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had enrichedperfect
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was enrichingprogressive
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were enrichingprogressive
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had been enrichingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of enrich
First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English enrichen, from Old French enrichir; equivalent to en- 1 + rich
Explanation
To enrich something is to make it richer, or to improve the quality of it. You play the lottery because it might enrich your bank account; you play ping-pong to enrich your quality of life. Regardless of the sense it is used in, the key to enrich is the word rich (you can almost think of it as the verb form of the adjective). So to enrich something is to make it rich, richer, or just plain better. Enrich always needs an object: You can’t visit a wax museum just to enrich, but you can go to enrich your life. Verbs that enrich include improve, enhance, cultivate, better, and develop.
Vocabulary lists containing enrich
Lyndon B. Johnson on "The Great Society" (1964)
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List 1
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Obama's State of the Union Address, 2014
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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:
But cat walking seems to enrich owners’ lives too.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 8, 2026
“Attempting to navigate current circumstances in ways that could enrich those very competitors is not a sustainable strategy for the United States.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 8, 2026
Lawmakers who have poured over the text say there is no opportunity for Congress to challenge a decision to enrich if it is endorsed by the study.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 2, 2026
Playwrights from Shakespeare to Sondheim to Manuel-Miranda, meanwhile, write around human emotion and almost weaponize relatability to enrich the audience’s theater experience.
From Salon ● Jul. 30, 2026
Mom and Dad said that they were looking to enrich my life.
From "Counting by 7s" by Holly Goldberg Sloan
“This transaction enriches Victory Capital’s talent pool, gives us additional scale to invest even more in our overall platform, and amplifies our distribution depth and breadth,” he said.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 26, 2026
Phillips, who grew up in Brecon Beacons, has always been a fan of sport and believes it enriches people's lives, so was keen to combine his passion with bringing people safely into sports.
From BBC ● Jun. 27, 2026
He welcomes the diversity in ages and backgrounds, saying it "just enriches the crew in general."
From Barron's ● Jun. 9, 2026
In nonfiction, a soulful look at how we interact with the natural world leads to an equally soulful look at why the American West’s human diversity enriches us all.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 3, 2026
Pedagogically Sound: Including multiple perspectives and views on material not only enriches the curriculum content, but also provides radically different frameworks and paradigms to students on content.
From "Music and the Child" by Natalie Sarrazin
Modern British royals have expressed remorse for the brutal slave trade that enriched their ancestors, but like the UK government have not issued an official apology for the slave trade.
From Barron's ● Oct. 2, 2026
In a different Alzheimer's mouse model, a diet enriched with L-serine increased blood levels of both L-serine and D-serine and partially restored measures of new neuron production in the hippocampus.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 18, 2026
In the early atomic age, who knew how well access to enriched uranium and plutonium might be controlled?
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 15, 2026
Many said they want to give their pets a fully enriched life, fearing that indoor-only cats miss out on the outdoors experience.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 8, 2026
Last week’s Thanksgiving was artificially sweetened, enriched with tense preservatives, and wrapped in plastic.
From "Wintergirls" by Laurie Halse Anderson
But in fact, just days before the raids began, Iran offered to suspend enriching its uranium for three years, to limit enrichment afterward to very low levels, and to allow international inspectors to verify compliance.
From Slate ● Sep. 22, 2026
The money from selling the antiquities is yet another input enriching the RSF’s financial empire, which experts count as one of the world’s largest non-state economies.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 8, 2026
The main process enriching these magmas with gold appears to be high-degree, multi-stage melting of a water-rich and oxidized mantle.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 29, 2026
If the case drags past September, Paramount may be forced to pay a large ticking fee, enriching hedge funds, not creatives.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 28, 2026
Edinburgh at that time was a center of intellectual vigor, and Hutton luxuriated in its enriching possibilities.
From "A Short History of Nearly Everything" by Bill Bryson
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