heighten
v.v. to make a feeling or a quality stronger or more intense. You use this when you want to say that something is increasing, like your senses or your emotions.
v. to increase the intensity, degree, or amount of a quality or emotion. Transitive in most contexts, though it can function intransitively to describe a state becoming more acute.
The dramatic music helps to heighten the tension in the movie.
The government increased security patrols to heighten public safety during the international summit.
The author uses sensory details to heighten the reader's immersion, making the fictional landscape feel as tangible as the world outside the book.
From Middle English heightenen, hyghtenen, equivalent to height + -en (verbal suffix).
The verb is transitive and typically takes abstract nouns like 'tension', 'awareness', or 'senses' as its object.
The price of bread heightenedThe price of bread roseHeighten is used for intensity or quality, not for numerical values or physical measurements like prices or temperatures.