exacerbate
ig-ZAS-er-bayt · verb
To make a problem, conflict, or harmful condition worse.
Memory connection
Picture “eggs as her bait”
Picture someone using eggs as her bait during an argument. The eggs splatter everywhere and make the conflict far worse.
The sound cue helps you reach the scene; the action in the scene carries you from the scene to the definition.
Use it accurately
Meaning in context
Delaying the repair allowed the leak to exacerbate the building’s structural damage.
Public accusations may exacerbate tensions between the two groups.
Exacerbate takes an existing negative condition as its object. People sometimes confuse it with exasperate, which means to irritate someone intensely.
Common patterns
- exacerbate a problem
- exacerbate tensions
- further exacerbate
Quick check
Can you retrieve the meaning?
Which development would exacerbate a water shortage?
Choose an answer, then explain it in your own words.