Meaning

6 senses

  1. (transitive)To make strong or stronger; to add strength to; to increase the strength of; to fortify.

    strengthen a muscle

    strengthen a wall

    verstärken, stärken

    уси́ливатьusílivatʹ, уси́литьusílitʹ

    make strong or stronger

  2. (transitive)To empower; to give moral strength to; to encourage; to enhearten.

  3. (transitive)To augment; to improve; to intensify.

    verstärken

  4. (transitive)To reinforce, to add to, to support (someone or something)

    strengthen an army

  5. (transitive)To substantiate; to corroborate (a belief, argument, etc.)

    strengthen the cause

  6. (intransitive)To grow strong or stronger.

    stärker werden

Examples

124 sentences

  1. Time, which strengthens friendship, weakens love.

    ruВремя, укрепляющее дружбу, ослабляет любовь. — Inego

    CK · Tatoeba · CC BY 2.0 FR · B2Open on TatoebaReport a problem

  2. I'm working on strengthening my arms.

    CK · Tatoeba · CC BY 2.0 FR · B1Open on TatoebaReport a problem

  3. Tom is strengthening his core muscles.

    Eccles17 · Tatoeba · CC BY 2.0 FR · B2Open on TatoebaReport a problem

  4. Algeria needs to strengthen its currency.

    Amastan · Tatoeba · CC BY 2.0 FR · B2Open on TatoebaReport a problem

  5. Algeria needs to strengthen its army.

    Amastan · Tatoeba · CC BY 2.0 FR · B2Open on TatoebaReport a problem

Translations

8 languages
Русский
By meaning 1
to make strong or stronger:
Deutsch
By meaning 3
to animate:
to make strong or stronger:
to grow strong or stronger:

Origin

From rare Middle English strengthenen (14th c.), from earlier strengthen (12th c.), where

From rare Middle English strengthenen (14th c.), from earlier strengthen (12th c.), where -en is the infinitive ending. Probably the original form was reinterpreted as strength + -en around the time when the infinitive ending was being apocopated in late Middle English.

Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · source

Forms

strengthens, strengthening, strengthened, strengthened
Base formstrengthen · to strengthen
3rd person singularstrengthens
Present participlestrengthening
Past simplestrengthened
Past participlestrengthened

regular · Lesson

Present simpleLesson

I, you, we, theystrengthen
he, she, itstrengthens

Past simpleLesson

all personsstrengthened

Present perfectLesson

I, you, we, theyhave strengthened
he, she, ithas strengthened

Future simple (will)Lesson

all personswill strengthen

Synonyms

24 synonyms
confirmB1intendB1nerveB2reinforceB2steelB1strengthA2annealbraceconsolidatebuild upcorroborateenstrengthenfortifyharden
Close in meaning

Antonyms

5 antonyms
weakenB2atrophydebilitateenervateenfeeble

Word family

14 related words
Relatedaugmentstrengthenerstrengthening
Derivedenstrengtheninstrengthennonstrengthenedprestrengthenrestrengthenstrengthenablestrengtheninglystrengthening plasterstrengthen upunstrengthenedunstrengthening

Lessons for this word

3 lessons

See also

neighbours in the dictionary
streetcarstreetlightstrengthA2strenuousstrenuouslystreptococcusstressB1

Dictionary text adapted from Wiktionary (Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0) and Open English WordNet / Princeton WordNet (CC BY 4.0, WordNet License); shared under CC BY-SA 4.0. Example sentences and recordings are credited where they appear.

strengthen — meaning, examples, forms, synonyms | Krumeto