aggrandizement

English

Alternative forms

• aggrandisement (UK)

Etymology

From French agrandissement, from agrandir; equivalent to aggrandize +‎ -ment.

Pronunciation

• (UK, less often US) IPA^(key): /əˈɡrændɪzmənt/
• (US) IPA^(key): /əˈɡrænˌdaɪ̯zmənt/

  • Audio (US):

    (file)

Noun

aggrandizement (countable and uncountable, plural aggrandizements)

1. The act of aggrandizing, or the state of being aggrandized or exalted in power, rank, honor, or wealth; exaltation; enlargement.

   The emperor seeks only the aggrandizement of his own family.

   • 1819, Jedediah Cleishbotham [pseudonym; Walter Scott], chapter XI, in Tales of My Landlord, Third Series. […], volume II (The Bride of Lammermoor), Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne and Co.] for Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, […]; Hurst, Robinson, and Co. […], →OCLC:

     He contented himself therefore with repeating, that his attachment was to Miss Ashton personally; that he desired neither wealth nor aggrandizement from her father's means and influence, and that nothing should prevent his keeping his engagement, excepting her own express desire that it should be relinquished—and he requested as a favour that the matter might be no more mentioned betwixt them at present, assuring the Marquis of A—— that he should be his confident in its progress or its interruption.

   • 2025 May 5, Leigh Kimmins, Aging, Slurring Trump ‘Lives in Fear’ of Dad’s Dementia‎^[1], The Daily Beast, archived from the original on 9 June 2026:

     The political analyst, speaking on the second installment of the show after its debut on Saturday, said the president's motivation has always been either 'self-aggrandizement' or 'self-preservation.'

Synonyms

• aggrandization

Derived terms

• self-aggrandizement

Translations

the act of aggrandizing

• French: agrandissement (fr) m
• Galician: engrandecemento (gl) m
• German: Erhöhung (de) f
• Portuguese: engrandecimento m
• Spanish: engrandecimiento (es) m