Other forms: increased, increasing, increases
To increase is to become bigger in number or amount. Prices increase, the rain increases, and the crowd at the bus stop increases every minute after eight.
It works both ways round: the noise increased, and they increased the noise. The prepositions matter, because an amount increases BY the difference and TO the new total, and it increases IN size or IN value. There is a noun spelled the same way but said differently, since the verb is in-CREASE and the noun is IN-crease, as in a pay increase or a sharp increase in traffic. Increase is a shade more formal than go up and a good deal calmer than soar or shoot up. The opposite is decrease, and both words like measurable things: sales, temperature, pressure, risk.
1verbincreaseTo become greater in number, amount or degree.~7%
“Traffic increases sharply after four o'clock.”
2verbraiseTo make something greater in number, amount or degree.~40%
“The council increased the parking charges again in April.”
synonyms: raise, boost
3nounriseA rise in number, amount or degree.~53%
“There has been a steady increase in the number of cyclists on that road.”
synonyms: rise
Shares are an estimate: a language model read 15 sentences found in the wild and placed 15 of them on a sense — a count of our sample, not a measurement of English.
Also accepted in games: rise, grow
Increase came through Middle English encresen and Anglo-Norman encreistre from Latin incresco, built from in, meaning on, and cresco, to grow. Cresco is a busy root: the crescent moon is the growing moon, a crescendo is music growing louder, and behind them all sits a Proto-Indo-European root meaning grow. To increase is to grow onto something.
Proto-Indo-European
*ḱer- (grow)
Latin
increscō — to increase
Anglo-Norman
encreistre
Middle English
encresen
English, today
increase
Built from
From Middle English encresen, borrowed from Anglo-Norman encreistre, from Latin increscō (“to increase”), from in (“in, on”) + crescō (“grow”). The noun is from Middle English encres, from the verb.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA