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Enhance Has Latin Roots
When enhance was borrowed into English in the 13th century, it literally meant to raise something higher. That sense, though now obsolete, provides a clue about the origins of the word. Enhance, which was spelled enhauncen in Middle English, comes to us from Anglo-French enhaucer or enhauncer ("to raise"), which can be traced back to the Latin altus ("high") by way of an assumed Vulgar Latin verb inaltiare, which would have been formed by combining the prefix in- with the Latin altus. Although enhance initially applied only to physically making things higher, it developed an additional and less literal sense of "to exalt especially in rank or spirit," and quickly acquired extended figurative senses for raising the value or attractiveness of something or someone.
Examples of enhance in a Sentence
Expert Panel®, Forbes.com, 23 June 2025
Some things in life are mood enhancing and for me one of those things are narrowing down the products that will make it in my suitcase for my summer excursions.
—Samantha Mims, Essence, 23 June 2025
These gothic elements enhance the book’s central preoccupations of trust, fidelity, and the difficulty of fully knowing another person—or oneself.
—The New Yorker, New Yorker, 23 June 2025
Original story reprinted with permission from Quanta Magazine, an editorially independent publication of the Simons Foundation whose mission is to enhance public understanding of science by covering research developments and trends in mathematics and the physical and life sciences.
—Zack Savitsky, Wired News, 22 June 2025
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Cite this Entry
“Enhance.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/enhance. Accessed 27 Jun. 2025.
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enhance
verb
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