MEANING
To enlarge someone’s power, standing, wealth, or apparent importance.
Use it for
Words that belong together
- aggrandize oneself
- aggrandize the state
On the page
He used the expedition to aggrandize himself at court.
The monument aggrandized the dynasty while erasing its victims.
Nearby words
Related words
Word forms
- Base
- aggrandize
- Past tense
- aggrandized
- Past participle
- aggrandized
- Present participle
- aggrandizing
Full tense & aspect guide
- Present
- aggrandize
- Present continuous
- am/is/are aggrandizing
- Present perfect
- have/has aggrandized
- Present perfect continuous
- have/has been aggrandizing
- Past
- aggrandized
- Past continuous
- was/were aggrandizing
- Past perfect
- had aggrandized
- Past perfect continuous
- had been aggrandizing
- Future
- will aggrandize
- Future continuous
- will be aggrandizing
- Future perfect
- will have aggrandized
- Future perfect continuous
- will have been aggrandizing
Choose the auxiliary that agrees with your subject. These are constructions of one word, not separate entries.
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Usage notes
Primary category: literary. Forms: aggrandize; aggrandizes; aggrandized; aggrandized; aggrandizing Legacy lexical fields mirror sense 1 only. Use numbered sense fields for all meanings. Third-person singular: aggrandizes.
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