How to spell increase

hear itin·crease/ةھn'kris/verbLong vowels

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. Often misspelled as increse or incresse.

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.”

Patterns it uses: The unstressed vowel (schwa)

Try spelling it

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Words like this

phenomenon · prove · action · invitation · possible · cycle · develop · reason

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