What does augment mean?
Word: Augment
Part of Speech: Verb
Meaning: Augment means to make something larger, stronger or greater by adding to it.
Synonyms: increase, boost, add to, expand
Antonyms: reduce, decrease, lessen
Word origin: From Latin augere, through late Latin augmentare.
How do you spell augment?
Syllables: aug - ment
Tricky part: It starts with au, said like the aw in saw, so ogment and agument are common slips.
Watch out for: ogment, agument
Memory tip: Think of August, the monsoon month when rain augments the rivers: both words open with the same three letters.
Augment in a sentence
Example 1: The choir augmented its sound with two extra drummers.
Example 2: Heavy rain augmented the water in the village pond.
Example 3: Sana augmented her science project with a short video of the experiment.
Fun Fact
Augmented reality, the technology that lets a phone place a 3D dinosaur on your desk, takes its name from this word: the real view is augmented with computer images.
Practise the CREST Way
Word Champ
Read the three statements and choose the correct option:
1. To augment something is to make it bigger or add to it. 2. To diminish something is to make it smaller. 3. To acquire something is to give it away to someone else.
a) only 1 and 2 are true
b) all three are true
c) only 2 and 3 are true
d) only 1 is true
Show answer
a) only 1 and 2 are true. Acquire means to get something, not to give it away, so the third statement is false.
Word Tally
How many words are misspelt in the given sentence?
The town council will augmant the water supply by digging two new wells before the hot sesson begins.
a) 0
b) 2
c) 1
d) 3
Show answer
b) 2. Augment ends in ment, and season has ea in the middle.
Back to the Roots
Choose the correct option:
Augment comes from the Latin verb augere, which means ___.
a) to cut apart
b) to make grow
c) to lend out
d) to keep safe
Show answer
b) to make grow. Augere is also behind auction, where the price grows with each bid.
Sound Check
In which word is 'g' pronounced differently?
a) paradigm
b) augment
c) foreign
d) diaphragm
Show answer
b) augment. In augment you hear the g; in foreign, paradigm and diaphragm it is silent.
Multiple Choice Questions
1. A shopkeeper augments his income by selling tea in the evenings. What happens to his earnings?
a) They are cut in half
b) They go up
c) They stay the same
d) They are lost
Show answer
b) They go up
2. A school library is short of books. What would augment it?
a) a leak in the reading-room roof
b) a power cut during reading hour
c) a gift of two hundred new books
d) a lost bunch of cupboard keys
Show answer
c) a gift of two hundred new books
