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.
Still, the broader technical picture appears increasingly tired, and a retest of that breakout level looks like a reasonable near-term possibility.
From Barron's • May 15, 2026
Fed-funds futures and the bond markets are increasingly pricing in the possibility that the Fed won’t cut its benchmark interest rate in 2026 — and that policymakers may even be considering a rate hike.
From MarketWatch • May 15, 2026
The universe of SPVs tied to private companies has gotten increasingly complex, with some SPV managers repackaging holdings to sell in other SPVs.
From The Wall Street Journal • May 15, 2026
Pochynok, of Islington, north London, had his evidence halted when Judge Mr Justice Garnham said he was "increasingly concerned about the accuracy of the interpretation" by the male Ukrainian interpreter.
From BBC • May 15, 2026
The most striking change in his personality was his volatility: good news triggered uncontained outbursts of joy, often extinguished only through increasingly acrobatic bouts of physical exercise, while bad news plunged him into inconsolable desolation.
From "The Gene" by Siddhartha Mukherjee
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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.