intensifier
nounEtymology From intensify + -er; from the most common use of such terms, to intensify an adjective.
1
That which intensifies.
2
Human sciences, Linguistics, Sciences A word or particle that heightens the intensity of meaning of a term.
- “Plus-” and “doubleplus-” are both intensifiers that replace words of different extremities, and the words very and extremely respectively. So words like great, excellent and horrible are rendered redundant in Newspeak, replaced by “plusgood”, “doubleplusgood” and “doubleplusungood” respectively. Note how “un-” has to follow the intensifier prefix.2020 August 8, Zui, “Controlled Languages — Newspeak”, in The Language Closet:
3
Arts, Hobbies, Lifestyle, Photography A chemical agent used to intensify the lights or shadows of a photograph.
- Derived terms
- self-intensifier