ENHANCE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does enhance mean? 

• ENHANCE (verb)
  The verb ENHANCE has 2 senses:

1. increase

2. make better or more attractive

  Familiarity information: ENHANCE used as a verb is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• ENHANCE (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they enhance    ... he / she / it enhances   
Past simple: enhanced   
Past participle: enhanced   
-ing form: enhancing   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Increase

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Synonyms:

enhance; heighten; raise

Context example:

heighten the tension

Hypernyms (to "enhance" is one way to...):

compound; deepen; heighten; intensify (make more intense, stronger, or more marked)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "enhance"):

potentiate (increase the effect of or act synergistically with (a drug or a physiological or biochemical phenomenon))

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Something ----s something

Derivation:

enhancive (intensifying by augmentation and enhancement)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Make better or more attractive

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Context example:

This sauce will enhance the flavor of the meat

Hypernyms (to "enhance" is one way to...):

ameliorate; amend; better; improve; meliorate (to make better)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "enhance"):

follow up (increase the effectiveness or success of by further action)

retouch; touch up (alter so as to produce a more desirable appearance)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Something ----s something

Derivation:

enhancement (an improvement that makes something more agreeable)

enhancer (anything that serves by contrast to call attention to another thing's good qualities)

enhancive (serving an aesthetic purpose in beautifying the body)

 Context examples 

Self-enhancing humour, meanwhile, entails maintaining a humorous outlook in potentially stressful and adverse situations.

(Self-defeating humour promotes psychological well-being, University of Granada)

Soil is not an inert, dead plot of dirt; it contains many living organisms that enhance the soil’s ability to make nutrients available to plants.

(New Test Can Determine Nitrogen Levels in Soil, U.S. Department of Agriculture)

Their results suggest that binding enhances the flow of certain critical molecules into the nucleus and enables astrocytes to enter a reactive state.

(Scientists uncover nuclear process in the brain that may affect disease, NIH)

A prokinetic agent with gastrointestinal (GI) motility-enhancing activity.

(Acotiamide, NCI Thesaurus)

The aMILs possess enhanced myeloma specificity, and are able to infiltrate the tumor microenvironment and initiate tumor cell lysis.

(Activated Marrow Infiltrating Lymphocytes, NCI Thesaurus)

The hydrochloride salt form of acotiamide, a prokinetic agent with gastrointestinal (GI) motility-enhancing activity.

(Acotiamide Hydrochloride, NCI Thesaurus)

In cell culture experiments they found that one of the antibodies enhanced the ability of neutrophils to ingest and kill bacteria.

(Scientists describe potential antibody approach for treating multidrug-resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae, National Institutes of Health)

Enhancing brain mechanisms triggered by stress raised the resilience of mice to stress and relieved depression-like behaviors.

(Self-tuning neurons promote resilience to stress, depression, NIH)

This may result in enhanced cellular and humoral immune responses to the antigen vaccine.

(Montanide ISA 720, NCI Thesaurus)

This appeared to enhance maturation of both cell types, causing the neurons to fire more often and both cell types to be marked by some gene activity found in fetal spinal cord cells.

(Researchers begin recreating human spinal cords on a chip, National Institutes of Health)