heightening

Pluralheightenings

1. 1
   nouncountable or uncountable

   The act by which something is made more intense, greater, or more pronounced.

   The heightening of public anxiety followed weeks of conflicting reports.

   Directors rely on a gradual heightening of suspense to keep audiences engaged.

   Similarintensification, escalation, increase, rise, amplification

   Oppositereduction, lessening, easing, decrease

   Note

   Here the word is a true noun that can be counted, so the plural names separate instances rather than one ongoing process. Heinrich Wölfflin's Drawings of Albrecht Dürer (1970) pairs "heightenings and sharpenings of the line" to describe ornamental flourishes in drawing. Gary Null's Germs, Biological Warfare, Vaccinations (2003) lists raised antibody responses "among other heightenings." In the singular it usually takes of: the heightening of suspense.

2. 2
   verb

   Present participle of heighten.

   The new evidence is heightening concerns about the project's safety.

   Years of drought are heightening competition for water in the valley.

   Note

   The -ing form does double duty. As a participle it builds progressive tenses (is heightening concerns), and as a gerund it still behaves like a verb, taking a direct object (heightening the walls, heightening the risk). It can carry either meaning of heighten, literally raising something higher or figuratively making it more intense. Once it takes the and of, it has become the countable noun.

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