as in to worsen
to make more severe
a misconceived plan that only exacerbated the city's traffic problem
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Recent Examples of exacerbate
What exacerbated the financial strain on tenants was soaring rent costs during the pandemic.
—
Jonathan Lansner, Oc Register, 16 Sep. 2025
As a result, five controllers took 45-day government trauma leave, exacerbating staffing shortages.
—Aaron Cooper, CNN Money, 16 Sep. 2025
Unusually high temperatures exacerbated the problem.
—Rick Hurd, Mercury News, 16 Sep. 2025
Central Mexico is quickly becoming the country's data center capital, but the region is also prone to droughts and blackouts, The Guardian reports, two issues data centers will likely exacerbate.
—Senior Reporter, PC Magazine, 16 Sep. 2025
See All Example Sentences for exacerbate
Jonathan Lansner, Oc Register, 16 Sep. 2025
As a result, five controllers took 45-day government trauma leave, exacerbating staffing shortages.
—Aaron Cooper, CNN Money, 16 Sep. 2025
Unusually high temperatures exacerbated the problem.
—Rick Hurd, Mercury News, 16 Sep. 2025
Central Mexico is quickly becoming the country's data center capital, but the region is also prone to droughts and blackouts, The Guardian reports, two issues data centers will likely exacerbate.
—Senior Reporter, PC Magazine, 16 Sep. 2025
See All Example Sentences for exacerbate
Recent Examples of Synonyms for exacerbate
Verb
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During Bilbao’s Semana Grande, Jone lives her first love with Olga, as her father’s Parkinson’s illness worsens.—
Rafa Sales Ross,
Variety,
19 Sep. 2025
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Alert fatigue worsens the already serious effects of the industry’s widening talent gap.—
Eyal Benishti,
Forbes.com,
19 Sep. 2025
Verb
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The move is likely to deepen concerns that the department — already investigating other public figures Trump regards as foes — is being weaponized by a White House seeking to have its prosecutorial powers used for purposes of retribution.—
Jason Ma,
Fortune,
20 Sep. 2025
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How the Grammy winner is deepening his Nashville connection.—
Sandy Mazza,
Nashville Tennessean,
20 Sep. 2025
Verb
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Venus aggravating Uranus tests your ability to roll with the punches.—
USA TODAY,
USA Today,
20 Sep. 2025
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His criminal history includes convictions for felony grand larceny, felony aggravated DUI with a child passenger less than 16 years old, identify theft, and retail theft.—
Martha McHardy,
MSNBC Newsweek,
17 Sep. 2025
Verb
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Officials say these events have intensified threat assessments and prompted tighter control over all physical and aerial access points.—
Amanda Castro
Hannah Parry
Shane Croucher
Jack Royston,
MSNBC Newsweek,
18 Sep. 2025
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Under leader Xi Jinping, China has intensified military, diplomatic and economic pressure on Taiwan, regularly sending fighter jets and warships, looking to squeeze its presence on the world stage.—
Wayne Chang,
CNN Money,
18 Sep. 2025
Verb
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That dynamic, combined with the concentration of economic gains in AI and among the wealthy, risks deepening inequality, and complicates the Fed’s attempt to balance its inflation and employment mandates.—
Eva Roytburg,
Fortune,
17 Sep. 2025
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Deep Monitoring And Debugging AI agents operate in workflows with APIs, third-party data and multistep chains of logic—complicating the debugging and monitoring.—
Gaurav Aggarwal,
Forbes.com,
17 Sep. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Exacerbate.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/exacerbate. Accessed 23 Sep. 2025.
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