An enhance synonym should say how something gets better: improve fixes weak spots, boost raises a level, enrich adds depth, heighten sharpens a feeling and refine polishes details. Enhance itself is a little vague and very common in essays and reports, so a precise swap often helps.
Further down: another word for enhance in four senses, a casual to formal strip, real swaps, and words that mean the reverse. If enhance keeps popping up in your drafts, run them through the swap checker linked from our essay and academic words section.
Swatch at a glance
Best swaps
improve, boost, strengthen, enrich, refinePart of speech
Verb (enhanced, enhancing, enhancement)Most formal
augment, supplementMost casual
boost, jazz up, spruce upStrongest
intensify, amplify, heightenAntonyms
worsen, weaken, diminishWatch out
Enhance means making something good even better. To fix something broken, improve or repair is clearer.
Enhance synonym table by meaning
| Meaning | Verbs | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Better quality | improve, refine, upgrade, polish | We refined the survey questions. |
| Greater amount or force | boost, strengthen, heighten, amplify | Music heightened the tension. |
| Better looking | beautify, embellish, flatter | The frame flatters the painting. |
| Added depth | enrich, supplement, round out | Field trips enrich the course. |
See the improve and strengthen pages for even more verbs.
Tone: boost at one end, augment at the other
Boost is quick, upbeat and common in marketing and news. Improve is plain and suits any reader. Strengthen implies the thing had some weakness and now holds up better. Enrich feels warm and is popular in education and culture. Augment is formal and literal: it means add to, usually in size or amount, as in augment the staff.
If a sentence already sounds stiff, move left on the strip. If it sounds too chatty for a report, move right.
Swaps for essays and reports
- Enhance the user experience becomes smooth the user experience or simplify checkout.
- Enhance student learning becomes deepen student learning.
- Enhance the flavor becomes bring out the flavor.
- Enhance security becomes tighten security.
- Enhance your skills becomes sharpen your skills.
- Enhance the photo becomes retouch the photo.
An essay sentence: "Technology can enhance classrooms and enhance teaching." Revised: "Technology can enrich classrooms and sharpen teaching." The reader now knows what kind of change you mean.
Enhanced on a resume: pick a sharper verb
Enhanced appears in so many job histories that it barely registers. Choose a verb naming the kind of gain, then add the figure. Upgraded fits systems, streamlined fits processes, expanded fits services or audiences, and raised fits numbers.
Instead of enhanced customer satisfaction, try raised customer satisfaction scores from 78 to 91 percent. More action words are on the elevate synonyms page.
Enhanced, enhancing and enhancement
For the adjective enhanced, use improved, upgraded or advanced: an upgraded model. For enhancing, improving and boosting are easy swaps. For the noun enhancement, try improvement, upgrade, refinement or addition. A small enhancement to an app is usually just called a tweak in casual speech.
Opposites of enhance
To reverse the meaning, use worsen for quality, weaken for strength, and diminish or reduce for amount. Detract from fits looks or value: clutter detracts from a room. Impair is formal and common in health writing.
- Poor lighting detracts from the display.
- Lack of sleep can impair memory.
See hinder synonyms for words about blocking progress.
Frequently asked questions
Enhance in formal writing: which swaps work?
Augment and supplement are formal. Augment means add to in size or amount, and supplement means add an extra part that fills a gap.
Is improve the same as enhance?
They are close. Improve works for anything that gets better, while enhance usually means making something already good even better.
Which essay verbs replace enhance?
Strengthen, deepen, enrich and refine are good essay verbs. Pick the one that names the type of change.
Any relaxed, casual swaps for enhance?
Boost, jazz up and spruce up are casual. Spruce up is mostly for rooms and appearances.
What is the opposite of enhance?
Worsen, weaken and diminish are the main antonyms. Detract from is useful for looks or value.
Which verbs go further than enhance?
Transform and revolutionize suggest a dramatic change. Use them only when the change truly reshapes something.