strengthen
/ˈstɹɛŋ(k)θən/verb
strengthen is spelled S-T-R-E-N-G-T-H-E-N. The wrong spelling people search most is strenghten: about 80 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 11 of all searches for the word. Strengthen is a verb meaning “To make strong or stronger; to add strength to; to increase the strength of; to fortify”.
How many letters and syllables are in strengthen?
| Letters | 10: S-T-R-E-N-G-T-H-E-N |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 2 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 11 times per million words; the 6,674th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 2; the most searched, strenghten, about 80 Bing searches a month (all of them) |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026).
How do you spell strengthen?
Strengthen is spelled S-T-R-E-N-G-T-H-E-N. 2 wrong spellings are searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 10 of the searches for strengthen in either form.
Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.
How common is strengthen?
Strengthen appears 11 times per million words in written English, the 6,674th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce strengthen?
- US /ˈstɹɛŋ(k)θən/
- US /ˈstɹɛnθən/
- [ˈstɹeɪŋ(k)θən]
Strengthen has 2 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Simplificationalizer-strengthen.wav, En-us-strengthen.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of strengthen
- strengthens present, singular, he/she/it
- strengthening participle, present
- strengthened participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does strengthen mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
verb
- 1
To make strong or stronger; to add strength to; to increase the strength of; to fortify.
strengthen a muscle
- 2
To empower; to give moral strength to; to encourage; to enhearten.
- 3
To augment; to improve; to intensify.
- 4
To reinforce, to add to, to support (someone or something)
strengthen an army
- 5
To substantiate; to corroborate (a belief, argument, etc.)
strengthen the cause
- 6
To grow strong or stronger.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Strengthen in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | renforcer, affermir, raffermir, fortifier |
| German | verstärken, stärken , bestärken , stärker werden |
| Portuguese | fortalecer, reforçar |
| Spanish | fortalecer |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.