Spelling.School · How to spell

How to spell increase

Increase is spelled I-N-C-R-E-A-S-E. The second half has EA, like a crease in paper: in + crease.

What it means: To become larger in number or size.

In a sentence: The number of colorful balloons will increase as we blow more up for the party. ▶

The part people get wrong

Watch for an unstressed vowel that is hard to hear.

Same family: increase (verb), increased, increasing, increasingly, decrease. If you can spell one, the shared part carries to the others.

Where it comes from: “Increase” comes from Old French “encreistre,” from Latin “increscere,” meaning “to grow in or upon.” It is built from the Latin prefix “in-” (in, on) and “crescere” (to grow), the same root that appears in words like “crescent” and “crescendo.”

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