magnify
Americanverb (used with object)
-
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)
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
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
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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.
This pattern has helped to magnify the party's seat losses, which currently stand at 250 seats or half of all those it has been trying to defend.
From BBC • May 8, 2026
And don’t forget Berkshire’s special sauce: A pile of permanent capital that it can magnify with its insurance float.
From The Wall Street Journal • May 1, 2026
“If you keep up the spending, the market volatility will magnify that, but if you focus on the withdrawal aspect of it, you can mitigate some of that risk,” she said.
From MarketWatch • Apr. 30, 2026
Fire, which is this year’s element, tends to magnify the animal’s personality.
From Los Angeles Times • Feb. 10, 2026
Unable to reach him by phone and confined at home because Ernest had the car, she let her imagination magnify “all the horror stories about what excess radiation might do to the men.”
From "Big Science" by Michael Hiltzik
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.
