increasingly

American

[in-kree-sing-lee] / ɪnˈkri sɪŋ li /

adverb

to an ever greater degree; more and more: Marketers are increasingly using video to create meaningful emotional connections with their consumers.

He became increasingly nervous and overwrought and began to suffer bouts of depression.
Marketers are increasingly using video to create meaningful emotional connections with their consumers.

Etymology

Origin of increasingly

increasing ( def. ) + -ly

Explanation

This adverb applies to anything that is happening more often, in greater numbers, or with greater intensity. An increasingly hot summer keeps getting hotter. To increase something is to add to it numerically, like increasing the size of your family by having a baby. Anything that happens increasingly is growing in some way. An increasingly depressed person keeps getting sadder. An increasingly sick patient keeps getting worse. An increasingly corrupt government is getting less and less honest. When you see this word, you know something is intensifying.

Keep Reading on Vocabulary.com

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.

Jefferies’s Lucas Ferhani expects the balance sheet to withstand the weaker free-cash-flow near term, but said that the margin of error is getting increasingly small for the French group.

From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 17, 2026

Chinese electric vehicles have become increasingly packed with unconventional features, like built-in massage seats, karaoke systems and a fridge, to stand out in a highly competitive market.

From BBC • Apr. 17, 2026

The U.S. jobs market, meanwhile, has been grinding along with little hiring and little firing, but with signs of an increasingly tough backdrop for college graduates.

From MarketWatch • Apr. 17, 2026

More-powerful AI chips need water to cool them, and managing that increasingly scarce resource is now mission-critical for any hyperscaler that wants to maintain good public relations and be a reasonable steward of the environment.

From Barron's • Apr. 16, 2026

During this period, plastic increasingly filled landfills and oceans while its production—up to 8 million tons annually by 2020—contributed to air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions.

From "The First State of Being" by Erin Entrada Kelly

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023