heighten

/ˈhaɪtn/

/ˈhaɪtɪn/

Other forms: heightened; heightening; heightens

When you heighten something, you increase it or make it more intense. If you want to heighten awareness about homelessness, you might write an article for your local newspaper.

Extreme weather can act to heighten people's concern about climate change, and publicity for a good cause can heighten awareness of the ways college students can volunteer their time. A movie director might heighten the tension in a scene by using scary music and dramatic lighting. In all of these cases, something is intensified or increased. The oldest, fifteenth-century meaning of heighten, however, was "to exalt, honor, or raise to a high position."

Definitions of heighten

1. verb

   make more extreme; raise in quantity, degree, or intensity
   “heightened interest”

   type of:

   increase

   make bigger or more
2. verb

   increase
   “heighten the tension”

   synonyms: enhance, raise

   types:

   potentiate

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

   type of:

   compound, deepen, intensify

   make more intense, stronger, or more marked
3. verb

   become more extreme
   “The tension heightened”

   synonyms: rise

   type of:

   increase

   make bigger or more
4. verb

   increase the height of
   “The athletes kept jumping over the steadily heightened bars”

   type of:

   bring up, elevate, get up, lift, raise

   raise from a lower to a higher position
5. verb

   make more intense, stronger, or more marked
   synonyms: compound, deepen, intensify

   types:

   heat up, hot up, screw up

   make more intense

   fan

   make (an emotion) fiercer

   enhance, raise

   increase

   amplify

   increase the volume of

   sharpen

   make crisp or more crisp and precise

   sharpen

   make (one's senses) more acute

   potentiate

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

   subtilise, subtilize

   make (senses) more keen

   type of:

   increase

   become bigger or greater in amount
6. verb

   make (one's senses) more acute
   synonyms: sharpen

   types:

   subtilise, subtilize

   make (senses) more keen

   type of:

   compound, deepen, intensify

   make more intense, stronger, or more marked