# increase

Pronunciation: say "in-KREES" /ɪnˈkɹiːs/

## Verb

1. To become, or to make something, larger or greater in amount, number, size or degree.
   - Simple: To get bigger or more, or to make something bigger or more.
   - _Global temperatures continue to increase year after year._
   - _Membership increased sharply after the campaign._

## Noun

Pronunciation: say "IN-krees" /ˈɪnkɹiːs/

2. The amount by which a quantity becomes greater.
   - Simple: The amount that something goes up by.
   - _Workers received a five percent increase in pay._
   - _The increase amounted to nearly a thousand dollars._
3. The act or process of becoming larger.
   - Simple: The act of getting larger or greater over time.
   - _The increase in population has been steady for decades._
   - _Researchers tracked the increase carefully over several weeks._
4. The making of one or more new stitches in knitting, adding to the total stitch count.
   - Simple: Adding one or more new stitches to your knitting.
   - _The pattern places an increase at both edges to shape the shoulder._
   - _A single increase every fourth row gives the shawl its gentle curve._

## Other meanings

- (verb) To grow in number by producing offspring; to breed and multiply.
- (noun) The offspring or young produced by a person or animal.
- (verb) Of the moon, to grow more nearly full, showing more of its illuminated surface; to wax.

## Origin

Latin increscere ("to increase"), made of in ("in, on") and crescō ("grow"), became Anglo-Norman encreistre, which Middle English borrowed as encresen. The noun, Middle English encres, was formed from that verb.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/increase (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).