different between enhance vs refine

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

re- +? fine

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /???fa?n/
• Rhymes: -a?n
• Hyphenation: re?fine

Verb

refine (third-person singular simple present refines, present participle refining, simple past and past participle refined)

1. (transitive) To purify; reduce to a fine, unmixed, or pure state; to free from impurities.

2. (intransitive) To become pure; to be cleared of impure matter.
3. (transitive) To purify of coarseness, vulgarity, inelegance, etc.; to polish.

4. (transitive, intransitive) To improve in accuracy, delicacy, or excellence.
5. (transitive) To make nice or subtle.

Related terms

• refinable
• refinement
• refiner
• refinery

Translations

Further reading

• refine in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• refine in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

Anagrams

• Feiner, enfire, ferine, fineer

Portuguese

Verb

refine

1. first-person singular present subjunctive of refinar
2. third-person singular present subjunctive of refinar
3. first-person singular imperative of refinar
4. third-person singular imperative of refinar

Spanish

Verb

refine

1. Formal second-person singular (usted) imperative form of refinar.
2. First-person singular (yo) present subjunctive form of refinar.
3. Formal second-person singular (usted) present subjunctive form of refinar.
4. Third-person singular (él, ella, also used with usted^?) present subjunctive form of refinar.