Definition

1. Adjective:
   • Increasing in size, amount, or degree: Having the quality of making something larger, more intense, or more significant.
   • (Linguistics) Indicating increase or largeness: In grammar, a word or affix (like a prefix or suffix) that implies an increase in size, intensity, or degree.

Usage and Examples

• General Adjective:
  • The government implemented an augmentative policy to boost economic growth.
  • The new fertilizer had an augmentative effect on the crop yield.
• Linguistics:
  • In the word "gigantic," the suffix "-ic" is not augmentative, but the root "gigant-" implies great size. A clearer example is the Italian suffix "-one," which is augmentative, as in "ragazzo" (boy) becoming "ragazzone" (big boy).
  • The prefix "mega-" is often used as an augmentative element in English, as in "megastore."

Advanced Usage

• Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC): A field of clinical practice that attempts to compensate for impairments in speech-language production. The term "augmentative" here refers to existing speech.
• In some languages, augmentatives can convey not just large size, but also negative connotations like clumsiness or ugliness, or positive ones like importance.

Variants and Related Words

• Augment (verb): To make greater, more numerous, larger, or more intense.
  • He took a second job to augment his income.
• Augmentation (noun): The action or process of making or becoming greater in size or amount.
  • The data showed a significant augmentation in traffic.

Synonyms

• Amplifying
• Increasing
• Enhancing
• Intensifying
• Magnifying

Antonyms

• Diminutive
• Decreasing
• Minimizing
• Reductive

Related Linguistic Terms

• Diminutive: A word or affix that implies smallness or endearment (e.g., the suffix "-let" in "booklet").
• Pejorative: A word or affix that expresses contempt or disapproval.
• Affix: A morpheme (like a prefix or suffix) attached to a word stem to form a new word.

Adjective

1. intensifying by augmentation and enhancement
2. increasing or having the power to increase especially in size or amount or degree
   • `up' is an augmentative word in `hurry up'