Example
enhance (verb)
Improve the quality or value of something that is already good.
Good lighting can enhance a student's ability to concentrate.
Written by Fizza Butool Zaidi and Ali Zaidi
13 alternatives
Improve the quality or value of something that is already good.
Good lighting can enhance a student's ability to concentrate.
Don't swap blindly: Not for fixing something bad. 'Enhance poverty' or 'enhance a problem' is wrong.
Increase or improve quickly; slightly informal but common in writing.
A four-day week could boost staff morale.
Make higher: standards, awareness, quality.
Training teachers properly is the surest way to raise standards in schools.
Make stronger: an economy, ties, a case, a community.
Shared sports facilities strengthen links between neighbouring schools.
Replace with a newer or better version; equipment and infrastructure.
The city plans to upgrade its ageing water pipes.
Make small changes to improve something already working.
Researchers are refining the test so that it gives fewer false results.
Grow and improve over time, especially skills.
Team sports help children develop communication skills.
Change a system or institution to correct its faults.
Many experts argue that the exam system needs to be reformed.
Bring new life to a place or economy.
Converting old factories into flats has revitalised the riverside area.
Make progress in knowledge, science or a career.
International cooperation has advanced medical research.
Improve; no object. Common in speech.
My English got better once I started watching films without subtitles.
Improve a skill that is already fairly good.
I'm taking a course to polish my presentation skills.
Make a bad situation better; very formal and rare.
Shelters can ameliorate the effects of extreme heat on homeless people.
Don't swap blindly: It is correct but sounds forced in most essays; 'improve' or 'ease' is usually better.
Paraphrasing
Band tip: the public IELTS Writing band descriptors for Lexical Resource describe Band 7 as using “less common lexical items” with “some awareness of style and collocation”. A synonym that changes your meaning or breaks a collocation works against you, so choose the word that fits the sentence, not the rarest one you know.
In context
Governments could do more to improve public health without large costs. Taxing sugary drinks could raise awareness of diet, and the revenue could be used to upgrade sports facilities in poorer areas. Over time, such measures could strengthen the habit of regular exercise among young people.
Enhance, raise, strengthen and reform are formal. Choose by meaning: enhance makes something good better, reform fixes a system, raise lifts a level or standard.
No. Enhance means improving something that is already good, such as quality, value or experience. For fixing a problem, write improve, tackle or reduce.
It is widely used in formal writing, especially with the economy, morale and sales. Use it once rather than repeatedly.
Use precise verbs (raise standards, strengthen ties, upgrade equipment), the noun form (an improvement in), or a phrase such as 'make progress in'.
Practise
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