Word.ws English Dictionary

embiggen

/ɪmˈbɪɡən/US/ɛmˈbɪɡən/

embiggen verb: to enlarge; to make or become bigger.

Verb

embiggen (third-person singular simple present embiggens, present participle embiggening, simple past and past participle embiggened)

  1. (ergative, humorous, nonstandard, usually) To enlarge; to make or become bigger.
    • Are there not, however, barbarous verbs in all languages? ἀλλ’ ἐμεγάλυνεν αυτοὺς ὁ λαός, but the people magnified them, to make great or embiggen, if we may invent an English parallel as ugly. After all, use is nearly everything.1884, C.A. Ward, “New Verbs”, in Notes and Queries: A Medium of Intercommunication for Literary Men, General Readers, Etc, volume 10, page 135
    • A noble spirit embiggens the smallest man.1996, “Lisa the Iconoclast”, in The Simpsons, season 7, episode 3F13, spoken by Jebediah Springfield (Harry Shearer)

embiggen meaning in Tamil

embiggen in Tamil

பெருஞ்செலவு

Examples of embiggen in a sentence

  • As I joyfully embiggen myself into the vague silhouette of Chewbacca, I have time to reflect on just what it is about big hair that I find so elementally appealing.2012 4 Feb, Caitlin Moran, “Hair: a big issue”, in The Times:
  • You can hide enemies, stack them up high, embiggen them with a Super Mushroom, hide coins in pipes, and so much more!2019, 1:24 from the start, in Super Mario Maker 2 Direct 5.15.2019 (Nintendo Direct), Nintendo:

Synonyms of embiggen

Antonyms

All synonyms and antonyms of embiggen

Forms of embiggen

third-person singular presentembiggens
present participleembiggening
past participleembiggened
pastembiggened

Origin of embiggen

From em- + biggen or big + em- -en, possibly analogous to belittle. The morphology parallels that of enlarge (en- + large) or embolden (em- + bold + -en). The verb's first recorded use is in an 1884 edition of the British journal Notes and Queries: A Medium of Intercommunication for Literary Men, General Readers, Etc. by C. A. Ward (see quotation below). The word’s current popularity follows its deployment as an intentionally ungainly form by television writer Dan Greaney for The Simpsons episode “Lisa the Iconoclast” in 1996.

Questions about embiggen

What does embiggen mean?
Embiggen means to enlarge; to make or become bigger.
What is embiggen in Tamil?
Embiggen in Tamil is பெருஞ்செலவு. See Embiggen meaning in Tamil.
How do you use embiggen in a sentence?
As I joyfully embiggen myself into the vague silhouette of Chewbacca, I have time to reflect on just what it is about big hair that I find so elementally appealing.
What part of speech is embiggen?
Embiggen is a verb.
How do you pronounce embiggen?
Embiggen is pronounced /ɪmˈbɪɡən/ (UK).
What is the past tense of embiggen?
The past tense of embiggen is embiggened.

Words near embiggen in the dictionary

  1. embezzlers
  2. embezzles
  3. embezzling
  4. embezzlings
  5. EMBI
  6. embiggen
  7. embiggened
  8. embiggening
  9. embiggens
  10. embigin
  11. embiid

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: embiggen (page history and authors); embiggen (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-embiggen.wav.

Cite this entry: “embiggen.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/embiggen. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.