greaten
/ˈɡɹeɪtən/
greaten verb: to become great or large; increase; dilate.
Verb
greaten (third-person singular simple present greatens, present participle greatening, simple past and past participle greatened)
- To become great or large; increase; dilate.
- To become great with child; become pregnant.
- To make great; magnify; enlarge; increase.
- one studies how how to please his prince, the other how to greaten and secure him.1685, Thomas Ken, sermon preached […] at Whitehall
- No blushes! all my body's blood / Has gone to greaten this poor heart, / That, loving, we may part.1860, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Parting Lovers
Antonyms of greaten
Forms of greaten
| third-person singular present | greatens |
|---|---|
| present participle | greatening |
| past participle | greatened |
| past | greatened |
Origin of greaten
From Middle English gretnen (“to become great, be pregnant”), equivalent to great + -en.
Words that rhyme with greaten
Questions about greaten
- What does greaten mean?
- Greaten means to become great or large; increase; dilate.
- What part of speech is greaten?
- Greaten is a verb.
- How do you pronounce greaten?
- Greaten is pronounced /ˈɡɹeɪtən/ (UK).
- What is the past tense of greaten?
- The past tense of greaten is greatened.
Words near greaten in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: greaten (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-greaten.wav.
Cite this entry: “greaten.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/greaten. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.