strengthen

Other forms of strengthen

past tense

strengthenned·

present participle

strengthenning·

third person

strengthens·

Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.

Questions about strengthen

What does strengthen mean?

strengthen means "make strong or stronger". That is the primary sense; the word has 3 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in strengthen?

strengthen has 2 syllables: streng-then. The stress falls on "streng". In IPA it is /ˈstɹɛŋθən/.

What is another word for strengthen?

Close synonyms include beef up, fortify, tone, tone up. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

What is the opposite of strengthen?

The recorded antonyms are weaken, weaken.

Is strengthen a common word?

strengthen is banded "Familiar" — widely understood, used when the subject calls for it. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.