amplify

From Middle English amplifiyen, from Old French amplifier, from Latin amplificare (“to enlarge”), from amplus (“large”) + facere (“to make”). See ample.

• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈæmp.lɪ.faɪ/

• Audio (US)

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• Hyphenation: am‧pli‧fy

amplify (third-person singular simple present amplifies, present participle amplifying, simple past and past participle amplified)

1. (transitive) To render larger, more extended, or more intense.

   amplify the loudspeaker

   amplify a telescope

   amplify a microscopes

   amplify the message

   amplify an image on the screen

   amplify the impactof the project

2. (transitive, rhetorical) To enlarge by addition or commenting; to treat copiously by adding particulars, illustrations, etc.; to expand.
   • 1700, John Dryden, Fables, Ancient and Modern

     Troilus and Cressida was written by a Lombard author, but much amplified by our English translator.

3. (transitive) To increase the amplitude of something, especially of an electric current.

   amplify a signal

4. (translation studies) To add content that is not present in the source text to the target text, usually to improve the fluency of the translation.

• amplify in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• amplify in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.