Other forms: heightened, heightening, heightens
To heighten is to make a feeling or an effect stronger. Heighten the tension, heightened awareness, heighten the risk.
It belongs to abstract things almost entirely now, so tension and awareness are heightened where a wall is raised. Heightened is the commoner form, and heightened security is what follows any incident.
1verbheightenTo make a feeling or an effect stronger.
“The dark music heightened the tension as the killer crept closer.”
heighten is an increasing.
From height plus -en, in Middle English.
Middle English
heightenen
English, today
heighten
From Middle English heightenen, hyghtenen, equivalent to height + en.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA