magnify

CEFRC1

/ˈmaɡnɪfaɪ/

verb

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

01
verb
To make something appear larger or more important than it is.
02
verb
Extra detail
To make (someone or something) appear greater or more important than it is; to intensify, exaggerate.

Examples

People often seek to magnify others' faults while minimizing their own.
You can use a magnifying glass to magnify small text.

At a glance

Sits at C1 on the CEFR scale

Senses: 5
Parts of speech: 1
Citations: 5
Synonyms: 5

Also pronounced

/ˈmæɡnɪfaɪ/

Deep Dive

verb

Extra meanings

To make (something) larger or more important.
To praise, glorify (someone or something, especially God).
To make (something) appear larger by means of a lens, magnifying glass, telescope etc.

More examples

In context

For they herde them speake with tonges, and magnify God.
For he who freely magnifies what hath been nobly done, and fears not to declare as freely what might be done better, gives ye the best cov'nant of his fidelity […]
My Governess […] told him I was continually eating some Trash or other. […] But this magnified but little with my Father.

Quick test

Two questions on this entry. Nothing is scored.

Question 1 · Quick check

To see the tiny cells, the biologist used a lens that could blank the image many times.

Practise this properly in the app, where the word comes back before you forget it.

Nearby

Citations

The word in print, with each source given in full.

For they herde them speake with tonges, and magnify God.
1526, [William Tyndale, transl.], The Newe Testamẽt […] (Tyndale Bible), [Worms, Germany: Peter Schöffer], →OCLC, Acts
For he who freely magnifies what hath been nobly done, and fears not to declare as freely what might be done better, gives ye the best cov'nant of his fidelity […]
1644, John Milton, Areopagitica; a Speech of Mr. John Milton for the Liberty of Unlicenc’d Printing, to the Parlament of England, London: [s.n.], →OCLC
Having already described him [the whale] in most of his present habitatory and anatomical peculiarities, it now remains to magnify him in an archæological, fossiliferous, and antediluvian point of view.
1851 November 14, Herman Melville, “The Fossil Whale”, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC, page 506
But through the oligopoly, charcoal fuel proliferated throughout London's trades and industries. By the 1200s, brewers and bakers, tilemakers, glassblowers, pottery producers, and a range of other craftsmen all became hour-to-hour consumers of charcoal. This only magnified the indispensable nature of the oligopolists.
2006, Edwin Black, chapter 2, in Internal Combustion
Not long ago, it was difficult to produce photographs of tiny creatures with every part in focus. That’s because the lenses that are excellent at magnifying tiny subjects produce a narrow depth of field. A photo processing technique called focus stacking has changed that.
2013 July-August, Catherine Clabby, “Focus on Everything”, in American Scientist

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Origin

verb

From Middle English magnifien, from Middle French magnifier, from Latin magnificāre, from magnificus.

Deep Dive

verb

More examples

Related

Quick test

To see the tiny cells, the biologist used a lens that could blank— the image many times.

Nearby

Origin

verb

To see the tiny cells, the biologist used a lens that could blank the image many times.