Other forms: augmented, augmenting, augments
To augment is to make something greater by adding to it. Augment the budget, augmented reality, augment their income.
It adds to what is already there rather than replacing it, which is exactly the claim in augmented reality: the real view stays and information is laid over it. It is formal. Note that the Latin augere, to increase, also gives author, auction and August, which was named to honour an emperor's increase.
1verbaugmentTo make something greater by adding to it.
“He took an evening job to augment his small pension.”
augment is an increasing.
Also accepted in games: increase, boost
Latin augmentare comes from augere, to increase. Author, auction and augur come from the same increasing.
Proto-Indo-European
*h₂ewg-
Latin
augmentare — to increase
Old French
augmenter
Middle French
augmenter
Middle English
augmenten
English, today
augment
Built from
From Middle English augmenten, from Middle French augmenter, from Old French augmenter, from Latin augmentare (“to increase”), from Latin augmentum (“an increase, growth”), from augere (“to increase”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA