magnify
Americanverb (used with object)
-
magnifies,
present (3rd person singular)
-
magnified,
past participle, past
-
magnifying
present participle
-
to increase the apparent size of, as a lens does.
- Antonyms:
- reduce
-
to make greater in actual size; enlarge.
to magnify a drawing in preparing for a fresco.
- Antonyms:
- reduce
-
to cause to seem greater or more important; attribute too much importance to; exaggerate.
to magnify one's difficulties.
- Synonyms:
- overstate
- Antonyms:
- minimize
-
to make more exciting; intensify; dramatize; heighten.
The playwright magnified the conflict to get her point across.
-
Archaic. to extol; praise.
to magnify the Lord.
verb (used without object)
-
magnifies,
present (3rd person singular)
-
magnified,
past participle, past
-
magnifying
present participle
verb
-
to increase, cause to increase, or be increased in apparent size, as through the action of a lens, microscope, etc
-
to exaggerate or become exaggerated in importance
don't magnify your troubles
-
rare (tr) to increase in actual size
-
archaic (tr) to glorify
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
-
overmagnifyverb (used with object)
-
remagnifyverb (used with object)
-
magnifiableadjective
-
unmagnifiedadjective
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unmagnifyingadjective
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
magnifysimple
-
magnifiessimple
-
have magnifiedperfect
-
has magnifiedperfect
-
am magnifyingprogressive
-
are magnifyingprogressive
-
is magnifyingprogressive
-
have been magnifyingperfect progressive
-
has been magnifyingperfect progressive
Past
-
magnifiedsimple
-
had magnifiedperfect
-
was magnifyingprogressive
-
were magnifyingprogressive
-
had been magnifyingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of magnify
1350–1400; Middle English magnifien < Latin magnificāre. See magni-, -fy
Explanation
To magnify is to make something bigger, whether in size or in significance. A magnifying glass makes things look bigger and when anything is magnified, it gets larger in some way. If your hunger is magnified, you've gotten hungrier. Wearing a heavy coat on a hot day will magnify the heat: you're feeling hotter and hotter. Also, non-physical things get magnified. The press could magnify a story by discussing it over and over, making it a bigger story than it was originally. All types of magnifying make things bigger.
Vocabulary lists containing magnify
Space Science (Astronomy) - Introductory
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That's Great!: Magn
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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:
Starting a business has always carried risks, and those magnify at older ages.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 5, 2026
The stock also is destined to join the exchange-traded funds that use options to magnify daily stock price changes.
From Barron's ● Jun. 17, 2026
A single supermassive black hole can dramatically magnify a background star, but only when the alignment is almost perfect.
From Science Daily ● Jun. 5, 2026
Underscoring the popularity of the fund’s strategy amid the artificial-intelligence boom, another firm recently filed to launch a leveraged ETF designed to magnify the Roundhill Memory ETF’s daily performance.
From MarketWatch ● May 12, 2026
Not long after her twenty-first birthday, she started seeing mystics, conjurers, and Voodoo priests, all in an attempt to magnify her vision.
From "Split the Sky" by Marie Arnold
In these events, the gravity of a foreground star and any accompanying planets magnifies the light of a more distant background star, briefly making it appear brighter.
From Science Daily ● Jun. 1, 2026
The S&P 500 is weighted by market capitalization, which magnifies the effect of this year’s gains for some of its largest companies.
From MarketWatch ● May 20, 2026
As in all sports novels, climbing offers the characters a framework for living, and Mr. Tallent magnifies every aspect of its metaphoric potential.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 23, 2026
The prospect of fame magnifies pathologies that have been intensifying over time.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 12, 2025
“She has put so much energy into this place that it’s practically glowing with it. It magnifies everything that’s alive. I think I’ll be able to feel when you need me.”
From "Huntress" by Malinda Lo
The newer ETFs, however, were designed to hold shares in just a single company and allowed investors to pile on additional leverage that magnified gains or losses.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 25, 2026
“What’s difficult for the folks in Big Sur, I think today, are the changing dynamics that people are experiencing all over California that are magnified here,” said Supervisor Kate Daniels, who represents the region.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 13, 2026
The physicality, contact area, movement is all magnified against a team like South Africa so we have to be at the races.
From BBC ● Jul. 13, 2026
Amplifying volatility means potentially “high upside” for investors, he said, although the pain of a bad bet would be magnified as well.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 9, 2026
Now there was a spotlight on the chair, and the overpoweringly bright blankness of the screen was replaced with a magnified image of the stage before it.
From "The Strangers" by Margaret Peterson Haddix
But on the edge of town, engineers peer through giant magnifying glasses while robotic arms manipulate sheets of copper to develop components used in some of the world's most advanced AI systems.
From Barron's ● Aug. 23, 2026
But the order will leave its mark by magnifying the confusion many parents already face in making decisions about their children’s immunizations.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 12, 2026
"This is especially true if you're using any sort of magnifying lens attachment on the phone."
From BBC ● Aug. 11, 2026
Those natural "cosmic magnifying glasses" could provide some of the strongest evidence yet for this new picture of the invisible universe.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 14, 2026
There’s a picture of a magnifying glass, and beneath that, in big black text, it says, “Trying to find somebody? We can help!”
From "The Wrong Way Home" by Kate O’Shaughnessy
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.
