as in deepens
to make more severe
a misconceived plan that only exacerbated the city's traffic problem
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Recent Examples of exacerbates
And freezing or cutting taxes only exacerbates the situation.
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Austin Sarat, Washington Post, 6 Jan. 2026
Unlike cobalt’s detrimental role in PC-NMC, researchers find that cobalt is critical for enhancing the longevity of SC-NMC by mitigating localized strain along the extended diffusion pathway, whereas manganese exacerbates mechanical degradation.
—Prabhat Ranjan Mishra, Interesting Engineering, 17 Dec. 2025
The action takes place to chintzy, cheerful music that only exacerbates feelings of blood-boiling frustration.
—Lewis Gordon, Vulture, 3 Dec. 2025
The lesson is that simply trying to impose or shift more costs to landlords and developers through various laws and regulations only exacerbates the housing affordability problem by discouraging both current and future housing development, thereby restricting supply and driving up prices.
—Adam Summers, San Diego Union-Tribune, 28 Nov. 2025
The film begins with marital and financial stressors and exacerbates them with the influence of predatory external forces.
—Alan Bradley, Space.com, 8 Nov. 2025
The fact that a cash-poor NASA is trying to juggle two human space flight programs—the station and moon-Mars—only exacerbates the funding problem.
—Jeffrey Kluger, Time, 31 Oct. 2025
For the world’s poorest people, their biggest problems will continue to be poverty and disease, not warming temperatures per se (although warming clearly exacerbates both problems).
—Tim McDonnell, semafor.com, 28 Oct. 2025
The conversation focused on men's wellbeing in America, particularly mental health among young men and how social media exacerbates issues of identity and loneliness.
—Alyssa Goldberg, USA Today, 10 Oct. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for exacerbates
Verb
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Continue reading … FOOD FIGHT – McRib mystery deepens as McDonald's is sued over what's really inside.—
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However, shares could surge as Uber deepens its foray into AV technology, offering an opportunity to improve its margins.—
Verb
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Nathan tells him to get in the water in order to fix the hooks and ropes, but Max stands on the Jet Ski instead, which aggravates the bosun.—
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Money could be at the heart of the power struggle when Mars aggravates Pluto.—
Verb
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Other data, however, complicates the picture.—
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Sentimental Value, an emotionally layered film up for eight Golden Globes this weekend, complicates that perspective.—
Verb
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Sam slips back into her addiction and as her alcoholism worsens, so do the visions and apparitions that seem to be haunting the forest.—
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As climate change worsens, more locations are going to become too hot for data centers.—
Verb
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The Arctic competition intensifies as Russia boosts military presence and China declares itself a ‘near-Arctic state,’ making Greenland crucial for North American defense.—
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Two days later, Mars conjunct Pluto in your fourth house intensifies emotional undercurrents tied to family, home, or old survival patterns.—
Cite this Entry
“Exacerbates.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/exacerbates. Accessed 13 Jan. 2026.
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