heightened
Syllables: height·ened/ˈhaɪtənd/
heightened is the simple past and past participle of heighten.
Meaning of heighten
Verb
heighten (third-person singular simple present heightens, present participle heightening, simple past and past participle heightened)
- To make high; to raise higher; to elevate.
- Black Bridge, near Machynlleth, is being heightened by one metre in a £3.6 million project to reduce delays caused by flooding.2021 June 2, “Network News: Cambrian Line bridge is raised”, in RAIL, number 932, page 23
- To advance, increase, augment, make larger, more intense, stronger etc.
- to heighten beauty
Adjective
heightened (comparative more heightened, superlative most heightened)
- Increased in intensity or concentration; elevated.
- Some dealers also took advantage of heightened demand for Harleys to charge more, a move that may have done long-lasting harm. “Dealers were charging more than the suggested manufacturer price and it made Harley look greedy and jeopardized our brand that we spent a long time building,” Mr. Ziemer...2009 March 22, Susanna Hamner, “Harley, You’re Not Getting Any Younger”, in The New York Times, archived from the original on 09 Nov 2020
- It may sound like science fiction, but heightened solar activity (known as space weather) can affect human technologies not just in space, but also in the air and on the ground.2023 November 15, Prof. Jim Wild, “This train was delayed because of bad weather in space”, in RAIL, number 996, page 30
- Synonyms:
- stepped-up
Synonyms of heightened
Forms of heightened
| comparative | more heightened |
|---|---|
| superlative | most heightened |
Words formed from heightened
Phrases with heightened
Questions about heightened
- What does heightened mean?
- Heightened means increased in intensity or concentration; elevated.
- What is heightened the simple past and past participle of?
- Heightened is the simple past and past participle of heighten.
- What part of speech is heightened?
- Heightened is an adjective.
- How do you pronounce heightened?
- Heightened is pronounced /ˈhaɪtənd/.
Words near heightened in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: heightened (page history and authors); heighten (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.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Back ache-heightened.wav.
Cite this entry: “heightened.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/heightened. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.