increasingly
Americanadverb
Etymology
Origin of increasingly
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.
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.
France's Arcom media regulator said in research published Tuesday that those aged between 12 and 17 were increasingly turning to generative AI companions.
From Barron's • Jun. 16, 2026
Consumers increasingly are gravitating away from the bone-in wings that made KFC a global success.
From MarketWatch • Jun. 16, 2026
Stacy Schlachter, senior vice president of sales at Penske Logistics, said customers increasingly ask the third-party logistics provider to help them plan for what-if scenarios.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jun. 16, 2026
Although researchers consider the current risk to people low, they say the continued expansion of CWD in wildlife makes surveillance and disease control efforts increasingly important.
From Science Daily • Jun. 16, 2026
Between 1949 and 1961, one out of every six East Germans had fled the GDR, escaping to the freedoms—and increasingly, the prosperity—of the West.
From "Spies: The Secret Showdown Between America and Russia" by Marc Favreau
![]()
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.