aggrandize
Americanverb (used with object)
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aggrandizes,
present (3rd person singular)
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aggrandized,
past participle, past
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aggrandizing
present participle
verb
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to increase the power, wealth, prestige, scope, etc, of
-
to cause (something) to seem greater; magnify; exaggerate
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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aggrandizesimple
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aggrandizessimple
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have aggrandizedperfect
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has aggrandizedperfect
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am aggrandizingprogressive
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are aggrandizingprogressive
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is aggrandizingprogressive
-
have been aggrandizingperfect progressive
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has been aggrandizingperfect progressive
Past
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aggrandizedsimple
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had aggrandizedperfect
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was aggrandizingprogressive
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were aggrandizingprogressive
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had been aggrandizingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of aggrandize
1625–35; < French aggrandiss- (long stem of aggrandir to magnify), equivalent to ag- ag- + grand ( see grand) + -iss -ish 2, irregular equated with -ize ( def. )
Explanation
If you are a window washer, but you refer to yourself as a "vista enhancement specialist," then you are aggrandizing your job title — that is, making it sound greater than it is. The verb aggrandize not only means "to make appear greater"; it can also be used to mean simply "to make greater." If you buy an estate and sink millions of dollars into its improvement, then you are actually aggrandizing the estate. If you are making yourself seem greater, then people may say you are "self-aggrandizing."
Vocabulary lists containing aggrandize
100 SAT Words Beginning with "A"
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300 Most Difficult "SAT" Words
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Face It: Selfie Vocab
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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:
“Experience shows that it is not wise to trust human cupidity where it has the opportunity to aggrandize itself at the expense of others,” they wrote.
From Barron's ● May 2, 2026
“There was never looking for credit, never looking to aggrandize himself,” Rendell told AP.
From Seattle Times ● Dec. 21, 2022
It feels odd to talk about, because I don’t want to aggrandize myself.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 20, 2019
All that emphasis on Powhatan as the only native leader of significance — that’s because he was the most familiar to the settlers, who tended to aggrandize their own experience, King said.
From Washington Post ● Nov. 21, 2018
And has not a profound observer of human affairs declared, Ex privatis odiis respublica crescit? individual hatreds aggrandize the republic.
From Calamities and Quarrels of Authors by Isaac Disraeli
Jackson fired back that Barrett’s approach actually aggrandizes the role of the court and elevates it over Congress.
From Slate ● Jun. 11, 2026
Trinidad Gonzales, a history professor at South Texas College, said the pamphlet aggrandizes Manifest Destiny, the belief that American settlers had the God-given right to expand across North America.
From Salon ● Sep. 27, 2022
It seems like, among other things a miserable mindset, one that aggrandizes your ego but withers your soul.
From The Guardian ● Mar. 19, 2019
Nichol, who also deftly shot and edited the film, never fetishizes or aggrandizes the typewriter, but instead smartly contextualizes its place as a classic symbol of American ingenuity, practicality and style.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 31, 2017
As he life detests, More life is still more odious; and, reduced By conquest, aggrandizes more his power.
From Young's Night Thoughts With Life, Critical Dissertation and Explanatory Notes by Edward Young
Chalamet is, of course, playing a character — an outsized version of himself, built atop the already aggrandized persona he’s become known for in his relatively short career.
From Salon ● Dec. 25, 2025
And would the predictable reaction have been helpful, or only further aggrandized terrorism and divided society?
From US News ● Oct. 26, 2016
At Farm Fresh Produce, an aggrandized stand near Moss Landing, I roamed the aisles stacked high with avocados, artichokes, pomegranates, kiwis, strawberries, kale and more.
From Washington Post ● Mar. 3, 2016
I think it’s fascinating that, as your role aggrandized there, you took on some of the natural roles for a talented IT executive but you also listed corporate strategy as one of your responsibilities.
From Forbes ● Jun. 16, 2014
The fathers whose sons had played merited a more aggrandized status in the fraternity of older men who queued along the passageway.
From "The Great Santini" by Pat Conroy
It seems aggrandizing and selfish to dwell on it when there are many people who lost everything in the course of that single day.
From Seattle Times ● Sep. 9, 2022
Fatherhood for me rests somewhere between selfless sacrifice and aggrandizing self-preservation.
From Scientific American ● Jun. 14, 2021
Jakab said Christmas employed a not-uncommon method of aggrandizing himself: “If you tell a lot of lies, people sort of think there must be something true in there.”
From Washington Post ● Jul. 20, 2020
And when aggrandizing accolades start flying — the Los Angeles Philharmonic website says many regard this as the great American opera — it’s time to shout, “Now hold on thar!”
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 5, 2017
It was a sickeningly aggrandizing clump that was exacerbating itself within her stomach; and it made her doubt the efficacy of the plan.
From Tokyo to Tijuana: Gabriele Departing America by Steven (Steven David Justin) Sills
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.
