Today we're checking out the lovely word augment, "to grow, to enlarge," which is closely related to other words about growth, like auction (where the bids go up and up), author (literally someone who makes things grow), auxiliary (a group that adds supporting members to the ranks), and augur (possibly, originally a Roman officer who interpreted signs about whether or not the crop yields would increase).

If I'm remembering my high school days correctly, I first learned the word augment from Romeo and Juliet. It's in the part where Romeo's dad talks about Romeo sulking as he wanders in the woods:

Many a morning hath he there been seen,
With tears augmenting the fresh morning's dew,
Adding to clouds more clouds with his deep sighs.

Ah, so emo. His tears make the dew dewier; his sighs make the clouds cloudier.

Let's recall some other words that also make an appearance in Romeo and Juliet.

1. This one means "bitter hatred:"

But come, young waverer, come, go with me,
In one respect I'll thy assistant be;
For this alliance may so happy prove,
To turn your households' r__c__ to pure love.

2. And this one means "wordiness:"

The date is out of such p__l_xity.
We'll have no Cupid hoodwinked with a scarf,
Bearing a Tartar's painted bow of lath,
Scaring the ladies like a crowkeeper.

3. And this one means "face:"

If love be rough with you, be rough with love;
Prick love for pricking and you beat love down.
Give me a case to put my v_s___ in:
A visor for a visor.

(To reveal any word with blanks, give it a click.) 

"Augment" traces back to the Latin augere, meaning "to enlarge, to enrich, or to increase." We've used it in English since the 1400s.

To augment something is to add to it or enlarge it, usually making it stronger or more powerful.

grammatical bits:

Part of speech:

Verb, usually the transitive kind: "This detail augmented my curiosity;" "Our excitement was augmented by the music."

Also sometimes the intransitive kind: "My curiosity augments;" "Our excitement augmented as we heard the music."

Occasionally a noun, the countable kind, meaning "an addition or an increase." Here's Norman Mailer: "He felt an augment of his fear."

Other common forms: 

The noun we typically use is "augmentation," pronounced "ogg men TAY shun" (hear it).

The other verb forms are "augmented" and "augmenting."

If you need some adjectives, you can use "augmented," "augmenting," "augmentive," and "augmentative."

how to use it:

"Augment" is a common word with a serious, positive tone. Pick it instead of "enhance," "enlarge," or "supplement" when you want to sound especially formal and emphatic, and when you want to imply that as something grows, it gains strength, power, or even grandeur.

We typically talk about things that augment people's wages and salaries, diets and meals, and impressions and emotions.

And we talk about surgeries that augment body parts, things that augment other things' effects or powers or capabilities, and artistic elements that augment the works of art that they're added to.

Lastly, you've probably heard of "augmented reality," a kind of technology that adds a digital layer of information to the real world that you're looking at. The phrase does sound grand. At the same time, to me, it sounds unsettling: a reality that's augmented sounds bloated, warped, unnatural, or surreal. Maybe I'm just being cranky. Augmentation is generally a good thing.

examples:

"Kendra pressed her hands over her ears, trying to augment the dampening power of the earplugs."   
  — Brandon Mull, Fablehaven, 2006

"[Bob Dylan's] main instrument of choice these days is a grand piano, and sometimes his execution on that is masterful, and other times it feels a little slapdash. But this has been recently augmented with an electric guitar."
  — Caryn Rose, Salon, 29 April 2025

has this page helped you understand "augment"?

Awesome, I'm glad it helped!

Thanks for letting me know!
If you have any questions about this term, please message me at Liesl@HiloTutor.com.

study it:

Explain the meaning of "augment" without saying "add to" or "make bigger."

try it out:

In his book The Gene, Siddhartha Mukherjee wrote:

"If genes were, indeed, independent particles of information, then it should be possible to select, purify, and manipulate these particles independently from one another. Genes for 'desirable' attributes might be selected or augmented, while undesirable genes might be eliminated from the gene pool."

Setting aside the ethical implications here, if you could fiddle around with your genes to augment any of your attributes, what would it be? Pretend that the process is easy, free, and safe. Would you augment your intelligence? Your ability to absorb new languages? Your eyesight? Your longevity? Your height? Your resistance to disease? Your eyelashes? I won't judge.

If you like, use this space to write. (To save your work, copy and paste it into an email or a document.)

before you review, play:

Try to spend 20 seconds or more on the game below. Don’t skip straight to the review—first, let your working memory empty out.

Our game this month is "Fill In For the Poet." 

I'll give you a few lines from a poem, with a blank where a word that we've studied before appears, along with the word's definition. See if you can come up with it. If you can't, that's fine: fill in the blank to your satisfaction.

To check out some examples, head here.

Try this today:

From Voice Porter's poem "Sun Ra Ethos:"

Diminishing chords
Linger in the ear
           dissolve into ether
Taking Love and melancholy
Ingredients
           for _____

Definition: "magical transformative science."

To see the word the poet chose, scroll all the way down.

review this word:

1. The opposite of AUGMENT is

A. FUSE.
B. HARVEST.
C. DIMINISH.

2. Praising contemporary steakhouses, Eric Asimov wrote, "The menus still touch all the steakhouse basics but augment them _____ far more interesting options than the proverbial icy shrimp cocktails and prefab Caesar salads."

A. in
B. for
C. with

Answers to the review questions: 1. C 2. C From the game: alchemy.

a final word:

I hope you're enjoying Make Your Point. It's made with love. I'm Liesl Johnson, a reading and writing tutor on a mission to explore, illuminate, and celebrate words. From my blog: On vocabulary...       36 ways to study words.       Why we forget words, & how to remember them.       How to use sophisticated words without being awkward. On writing...       How to improve any sentence.       How to motivate our kids to write.       How to stop procrastinating and start writing.       How to bulk up your writing when you have to meet a word count. From my heart: a profound thanks to the generous patrons, donors, and sponsors that make it possible for me to write these emails. If you'd like to be a patron or a donor, please click here. If you'd like to be a sponsor and include your ad in an issue, please contact me at Liesl@HiloTutor.com. A disclaimer: When I write definitions, I use plain language and stick to the words' common, useful applications. If you're interested in authoritative and multiple definitions of words, I encourage you to check a dictionary. Also, because I'm American, I stick to American English when I share words' meanings, usage, and pronunciations; these elements sometimes vary across world Englishes.