MAGNIFY (magnified)

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

Irregular inflected form: magnified   

 Dictionary entry overview: What does magnify mean? 

• MAGNIFY (verb)
  The verb MAGNIFY has 3 senses:

1. increase in size, volume or significance

2. to enlarge beyond bounds or the truth

3. make large

  Familiarity information: MAGNIFY used as a verb is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• MAGNIFY (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they magnify    ... he / she / it magnifies   
Past simple: magnified   
Past participle: magnified   
-ing form: magnifying   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Increase in size, volume or significance

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Synonyms:

amplify; magnify

Context example:

Her terror was magnified in her mind

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

enlarge (become larger or bigger)

Sentence frames:

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

Derivation:

magnification (the act of expanding something in apparent size)

magnification (a photographic print that has been enlarged)

magnification (making to seem more important than it really is)

magnification (the ratio of the size of an image to the size of the object)

magnitude (the property of relative size or extent (whether large or small))

magnitude (relative importance)

Sense 2

Meaning:

To enlarge beyond bounds or the truth

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

Synonyms:

amplify; exaggerate; hyperbolise; hyperbolize; magnify; overdraw; overstate

Context example:

tended to romanticize and exaggerate this 'gracious Old South' imagery

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

misinform; mislead (give false or misleading information to)

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

overemphasise; overemphasize; overstress (place special or excessive emphasis on)

blow; bluster; boast; brag; gas; gasconade; shoot a line; swash; tout; vaunt (show off)

aggrandise; aggrandize; blow up; dramatise; dramatize; embellish; embroider; lard; pad (add details to)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Derivation:

magnification (making to seem more important than it really is)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Make large

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Synonyms:

blow up; enlarge; magnify

Context example:

blow up an image

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

increase (make bigger or more)

Domain category:

photography; picture taking (the act of taking and printing photographs)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Derivation:

magnification (a photographic print that has been enlarged)

magnification (the ratio of the size of an image to the size of the object)

magnifier (a scientific instrument that magnifies an image)

magnitude (the property of relative size or extent (whether large or small))

 Context examples 

This he opened and made a very careful examination of the sill with his powerful magnifying lens.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Look at that with your magnifying glass, Mr. Holmes.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

A microscope (device to magnify small objects) in which objects are lit directly by white light.

(Light microscope, NCI Dictionary)

A microscope (device used to magnify small objects) that uses electrons (instead of light) to produce an enlarged image.

(Electron microscope, NCI Dictionary)

Some of them were very tall; many were dressed in white; and all had a sweeping amplitude of array that seemed to magnify their persons as a mist magnifies the moon.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

However, through the phenomenon known as gravitational lensing, a massive, foreground cluster of galaxies acts as a natural zoom lens in space by magnifying and stretching images of far more distant background galaxies.

(Massive Dead Disk Galaxy Challenges Theories of Galaxy Evolution, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

"We can't manage climate damage to coral reefs until we better understand how pollution and disease magnify the impacts of heat stress," Harvell said.

(Sea fan corals face new threat in warming ocean: copper, National Science Foundation)

New glasses, brighter lighting, anti-glare sunglasses or magnifying lenses can help at first.

(Cataract, NIH: National Eye Institute)

Samples were magnified by the built-in lens of the cell phone camera along with an external lens.

(Smartphone microscope detects nanoparticles and viruses, NIH)

In the center of the image is the immense galaxy cluster Abell S1063, located 4 billion light-years away, and surrounded by magnified images of galaxies much farther.

(NASA’s Hubble Looks to the Final Frontier, NASA)