"escalate" meaning in English

See escalate in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Verb

IPA: /ˈɛs.kə.leɪt/ [UK, US] Audio: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-escalate.wav [UK] Forms: escalate [canonical], escalates [third-person, singular], escalated [past], escalated [past, participle], escalating [present, participle]
enPR: esʹ kə lāt [UK, US] Head templates: {{verb|escalat|e}} [POS TABLE]
  1. If you escalate something, you increase its intensity.
    Sense id: simple-escalate-en-verb-qC7WEY~0
{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "escalate",
      "tags": [
        "canonical"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "escalates",
      "tags": [
        "third-person",
        "singular"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "escalated",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "escalated",
      "tags": [
        "past",
        "participle"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "escalating",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "participle"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "escalat",
        "2": "e"
      },
      "expansion": "[POS TABLE]",
      "name": "verb"
    }
  ],
  "hyphenation": "es‧cal‧ate",
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "Violence escalated during the election."
        },
        {
          "text": "The shooting escalated the existing hostility."
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "If you escalate something, you increase its intensity."
      ],
      "id": "simple-escalate-en-verb-qC7WEY~0",
      "raw_tags": [
        "transitive & intransitive"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "enpr": "esʹ kə lāt",
      "tags": [
        "UK",
        "US"
      ]
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/ˈɛs.kə.leɪt/",
      "tags": [
        "UK",
        "US"
      ]
    },
    {
      "audio": "LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-escalate.wav",
      "raw_tags": [
        "Audio"
      ],
      "tags": [
        "UK"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "escalate"
}
{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "escalate",
      "tags": [
        "canonical"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "escalates",
      "tags": [
        "third-person",
        "singular"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "escalated",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "escalated",
      "tags": [
        "past",
        "participle"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "escalating",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "participle"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "escalat",
        "2": "e"
      },
      "expansion": "[POS TABLE]",
      "name": "verb"
    }
  ],
  "hyphenation": "es‧cal‧ate",
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "Intransitive verbs",
        "Transitive verbs"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "Violence escalated during the election."
        },
        {
          "text": "The shooting escalated the existing hostility."
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "If you escalate something, you increase its intensity."
      ],
      "raw_tags": [
        "transitive & intransitive"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "enpr": "esʹ kə lāt",
      "tags": [
        "UK",
        "US"
      ]
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/ˈɛs.kə.leɪt/",
      "tags": [
        "UK",
        "US"
      ]
    },
    {
      "audio": "LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-escalate.wav",
      "raw_tags": [
        "Audio"
      ],
      "tags": [
        "UK"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "escalate"
}

Download raw JSONL data for escalate meaning in English (1.0kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2025-04-24 from the simplewiktionary dump dated 2025-04-20 using wiktextract (813e02a and ea19a0a). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

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