intensifier

English

Etymology

From intensify +‎ -er; from the most common use of such terms, to intensify an adjective.

Pronunciation

• Audio (US):

  (file)

Noun

intensifier (plural intensifiers)

1. That which intensifies.
2. (linguistics) A word or particle that heightens the intensity of meaning of a term.

   Synonym: expletive

   Antonym: downtoner

   • 2020 August 8, Zui, “Controlled Languages — Newspeak”, in The Language Closet‎^[1]:

     “Plus-” and “doubleplus-” are both intensifiers that replace words of different extremities, and the words very and extremely respectively. So words like great, excellent and horrible are rendered redundant in Newspeak, replaced by “plusgood”, “doubleplusgood” and “doubleplusungood” respectively. Note how “un-” has to follow the intensifier prefix.

3. (photography) A chemical agent used to intensify the lights or shadows of a photograph.

Derived terms

• self-intensifier

Translations

that which intensifies

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: please add this translation if you can

• Finnish: vahvistin (fi)
• Portuguese: please add this translation if you can

a word or particle that heightens the intensity of meaning of a term

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: please add this translation if you can

• Finnish: intensifikaattori
• German: Intensitätspartikel (de), Steigerungspartikel (de)
• Hungarian: fokozószó (hu), nyomatékosítószó (hu), nyomatékosító, nyomósítószó, nyomósító szó
• Portuguese: please add this translation if you can

a chemical agent used to intensify the lights or shadows of a photograph

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: please add this translation if you can

• Finnish: vahvistin (fi), valonvahvistin (lights), korjain
• Portuguese: please add this translation if you can

See also

• Category:English intensifiers

References

• Eugene E. Loos [et al.], editors (2003), “intensifier”, in Glossary of Linguistic Terms, Dallas, Tex.: SIL International.
• “intensifier”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.

French

Etymology

From intense +‎ -ifier.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɛ̃.tɑ̃.si.fje/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Audio (France (Somain)):

  (file)

Verb

intensifier

1. to intensify

Conjugation

Conjugation of intensifier (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	intensifier
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	intensifiant /ɛ̃.tɑ̃.si.fjɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		intensifié /ɛ̃.tɑ̃.si.fje/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	intensifie /ɛ̃.tɑ̃.si.fi/	intensifies /ɛ̃.tɑ̃.si.fi/	intensifie /ɛ̃.tɑ̃.si.fi/	intensifions /ɛ̃.tɑ̃.si.fjɔ̃/	intensifiez /ɛ̃.tɑ̃.si.fje/	intensifient /ɛ̃.tɑ̃.si.fi/
	imperfect	intensifiais /ɛ̃.tɑ̃.si.fjɛ/	intensifiais /ɛ̃.tɑ̃.si.fjɛ/	intensifiait /ɛ̃.tɑ̃.si.fjɛ/	intensifiions /ɛ̃.tɑ̃.si.fi.jɔ̃/	intensifiiez /ɛ̃.tɑ̃.si.fi.je/	intensifiaient /ɛ̃.tɑ̃.si.fjɛ/
	past historic2	intensifiai /ɛ̃.tɑ̃.si.fje/	intensifias /ɛ̃.tɑ̃.si.fja/	intensifia /ɛ̃.tɑ̃.si.fja/	intensifiâmes /ɛ̃.tɑ̃.si.fjam/	intensifiâtes /ɛ̃.tɑ̃.si.fjat/	intensifièrent /ɛ̃.tɑ̃.si.fjɛʁ/
	future	intensifierai /ɛ̃.tɑ̃.si.fi.ʁe/	intensifieras /ɛ̃.tɑ̃.si.fi.ʁa/	intensifiera /ɛ̃.tɑ̃.si.fi.ʁa/	intensifierons /ɛ̃.tɑ̃.si.fi.ʁɔ̃/	intensifierez /ɛ̃.tɑ̃.si.fi.ʁe/	intensifieront /ɛ̃.tɑ̃.si.fi.ʁɔ̃/
	conditional	intensifierais /ɛ̃.tɑ̃.si.fi.ʁɛ/	intensifierais /ɛ̃.tɑ̃.si.fi.ʁɛ/	intensifierait /ɛ̃.tɑ̃.si.fi.ʁɛ/	intensifierions /ɛ̃.tɑ̃.si.fi.ʁjɔ̃/	intensifieriez /ɛ̃.tɑ̃.si.fi.ʁje/	intensifieraient /ɛ̃.tɑ̃.si.fi.ʁɛ/
(compound tenses)	present perfect	present indicative of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect	imperfect indicative of avoir + past participle
	past anterior2	past historic of avoir + past participle
	future perfect	future of avoir + past participle
	conditional perfect	conditional of avoir + past participle
subjunctive		que je (j’)	que tu	qu’il, qu’elle	que nous	que vous	qu’ils, qu’elles
(simple tenses)	present	intensifie /ɛ̃.tɑ̃.si.fi/	intensifies /ɛ̃.tɑ̃.si.fi/	intensifie /ɛ̃.tɑ̃.si.fi/	intensifiions /ɛ̃.tɑ̃.si.fi.jɔ̃/	intensifiiez /ɛ̃.tɑ̃.si.fi.je/	intensifient /ɛ̃.tɑ̃.si.fi/
	imperfect2	intensifiasse /ɛ̃.tɑ̃.si.fjas/	intensifiasses /ɛ̃.tɑ̃.si.fjas/	intensifiât /ɛ̃.tɑ̃.si.fja/	intensifiassions /ɛ̃.tɑ̃.si.fja.sjɔ̃/	intensifiassiez /ɛ̃.tɑ̃.si.fja.sje/	intensifiassent /ɛ̃.tɑ̃.si.fjas/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	intensifie /ɛ̃.tɑ̃.si.fi/	—	intensifions /ɛ̃.tɑ̃.si.fjɔ̃/	intensifiez /ɛ̃.tɑ̃.si.fje/	—
compound		—	simple imperative of avoir + past participle	—	simple imperative of avoir + past participle	simple imperative of avoir + past participle	—
1 The French gerund is usable only with the preposition en.
2 In less formal writing or speech, these tenses may be found to have been replaced in the following way: past historic → present perfect past anterior → pluperfect imperfect subjunctive → present subjunctive pluperfect subjunctive → past subjunctive (Christopher Kendris [1995], Master the Basics: French, pp. 77, 78, 79, 81).

Related terms

• intense
• intensif
• intensification
• intensité

Further reading

• “intensifier”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Anagrams

• Finistérien, finistérien, résinifient