different between enhance vs fortify

English

Alternative forms

• inhance, enhaunce, inhaunce (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English enhauncen, from Anglo-Norman enhauncer, from Old French enhaucier (“make greater”), from Late Latin inaltare (“exalt”), from Latin in + altus (“high”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?n?h??ns/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /?n?hæns/
• Rhymes: -??ns, -æns

Verb

enhance (third-person singular simple present enhances, present participle enhancing, simple past and past participle enhanced)

1. (obsolete) To lift, raise up.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, I.i:

     nought aghast, his mightie hand enhaunst: / The stroke down from her head vnto her shoulder glaunst.

2. To augment or make something greater.
3. To improve something by adding features.
4. (intransitive) To be raised up; to grow larger.

   A debt enhances rapidly by compound interest.

5. (radiology) To take up contrast agent (for an organ, tissue, or lesion).

Synonyms

• heighten
• See also Thesaurus:improve

Translations

Middle English

Verb

enhance

1. Alternative form of enhauncen

English

Etymology

From Old French fortifier, from Latin fortific?.

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /?f??t?fa?/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?f??t?fa?/
• Hyphenation: for?ti?fy

Verb

fortify (third-person singular simple present fortifies, present participle fortifying, simple past and past participle fortified)

1. (military) To increase the defenses of; to strengthen and secure by military works; to render defensible against an attack by hostile forces. [from early 15th c.]
2. (figuratively) To impart strength or vigor to.
3. (wine) To add spirits to wine to increase the alcohol content. [from 1880]

4. (food) To increase the nutritional value of food by adding ingredients. [from 1939]
   • 1979, Kiplinger's Personal Finance (volume 33, number 7, July 1979, page 47)

     Compare the nutrition information label of a regular ready-to-eat fortified cereal with that of a presweetened brand and you'll note that, although the sweetened one's sugar content is higher, the fortification is virtually identical.

Synonyms

• (To strengthen military defenses): castellate, incastle, incastellate; see also strengthen and secure
• (To impart strength): See also Thesaurus:strengthen

Derived terms

• biofortify

Related terms

• fort
• fortification
• fortress

Translations