Other forms: exacerbated, exacerbating, exacerbates
To exacerbate is to make a bad situation worse. Exacerbate the problem, exacerbated by delay, exacerbate tensions.
It only works on things already bad — nothing good is exacerbated, which is the constraint people forget. It is formal and common in policy and medical writing. Note exasperate, which sounds similar and means to irritate a person; and that the Latin acerbus means bitter or harsh.
1verbexacerbateTo make a bad situation worse.
“Scratching will only exacerbate the rash, so try to leave it alone.”
exacerbate is a worsening.
Latin exacerbare is ex plus acerbus, bitter or harsh. Acerbic and acrid come from the same sharpness.
Proto-Indo-European
*h₂eḱ-
Latin
exacerbātus
English, today
exacerbate
Built from
1660; Latin exacerbātus, perfect passive participle of Latin exacerbō (“to provoke”) (see -ate), from ex- (“out of; thoroughly”) + acerbō (“to embitter, harshen or worsen”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA