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Emphasize vs Enhance - What's the difference?

emphasize | enhance |

As verbs the difference between emphasize and enhance

is that emphasize is to stress, give emphasis or extra weight to (something) while enhance is to lift, raise up.

emphasize

English

Alternative forms

* emphasise

Verb

(emphasiz)
  • To stress, give emphasis or extra weight to (something).
    • His two-fingered gesture emphasized what he had told his boss to do with his job.

    Synonyms

    * betone * stress * underscore

    Antonyms

    * de-emphasize * downplay

    Derived terms

    * reemphasize * overemphasize * underemphasize

    Related terms

    * emphasis * emphatic

    enhance

    English

    Alternative forms

    * inhance * enhaunce * inhaunce

    Verb

    (enhanc)
  • (obsolete) To lift, raise up.
  • * 1590 , Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene , I.i:
    • nought aghast, his mightie hand enhaunst : / The stroke down from her head vnto her shoulder glaunst.
    (Wyclif Bible)
  • To augment or make something greater.
  • * Southey
    • The reputation of ferocity enhanced the value of their services, in making them feared as well as hated.
  • * 2000 , Mordecai Roshwald, Liberty: Its Meaning and Scope , page 155
    • A hereditary monarch relies on pomp and ceremony, which enhance the respect for the institution
  • To improve something by adding features.
  • * 1986 , Maggie Righetti, Knitting in Plain English , page 192
    • A pom-pom to top off a stocking cap, a fringe to feather the edge of a shawl, tassels to define the points of an afghan, these are just a few of the delightful little goodies that enhance handknit things.
  • To be raised up; to grow larger.
    • A debt enhances rapidly by compound interest.

    Synonyms

    * See also