increasingly

American  

[in-kree-sing-lee] / ɪnˈkri sɪŋ li /

adverb

1. 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.

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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.

Example Sentences

American parenthood is plagued with structural problems: A lack of affordable childcare, an increasingly rising standard for “good” parenting, and a cost of living that necessitates more than one income per family.

From Salon • Jun. 24, 2026

But for now, “the market is increasingly pricing a partial restoration of flows rather than a prolonged chokehold on Gulf exports,” Innes said.

From MarketWatch • Jun. 24, 2026

During a sustained interdiction campaign, “terrain-holding will become increasingly untenable for Russian ground forces who will be under-resourced from the rear and increasingly subject to attrition from the front,” the operating concept document predicted.

From The Wall Street Journal • Jun. 24, 2026

The paper arrives at a time when debates about conscious artificial intelligence are becoming increasingly common.

From Science Daily • Jun. 24, 2026

When Calvin stopped replying to his letters, Servetus, based in Vienna, continued to send a stream of increasingly vituperative correspondence.

From "The Scientists" by John Gribbin

Related Words

• more
• more and more
• progressively