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aggravate

/ˈæɡrəveɪt//ˈæɡrəveɪt/·verb
to make a problem, injury, or bad situation worse
Fig. 1 — A man sits with his ankle wrapped, a small red pulse beating under the bandage — bad, but bearable, so long as he leaves it alone.
01Definition

To aggravate something is to make a bad thing worse — and the word points a finger while it says so. A condition that is aggravated did not simply deteriorate; some outside action worked on it, often a careless or deliberate one: running on a sprained ankle aggravates the injury, a harsh reply aggravates a quarrel. The worsening tends to stick. Its mirror-opposites are alleviate, relieve and ease, and its close cousin is exacerbate, which is more formal and often accidental. In everyday speech aggravate has a second job: to annoy or irritate someone, usually through repetition.

02In use
  • iRunning on a sprained ankle will only aggravate the injury.
  • iiThe minister's dismissive remarks aggravated an already tense standoff.
  • iiiIt aggravates her when people interrupt before she has finished a sentence.
03Collocations
  • aggravate an injury
  • aggravate the situation
  • aggravate tensions
  • aggravate the problem
  • aggravating circumstances
  • be aggravated by

Family aggravation (noun) · aggravating (adjective) · aggravated (adjective)

04Relations

=worsen, exacerbate, inflame, intensify, irritate

≠alleviate, relieve, ease, mitigate

05Compared
PairThe difference
aggravate vs abatethe trouble dies down on its own → abate; an outside hand makes it worse → aggravate.
aggravate vs alleviatemakes the condition worse (adds weight) → aggravate; makes the suffering lighter → alleviate.
aggravate vs easetightens what hurts (and takes the blame) → aggravate; loosens it gently, by degrees → ease.
aggravate vs exacerbatean injury (or a person's patience) worked worse, often lastingly → aggravate; a situation intensified into a flare-up, formal → exacerbate.
aggravate vs lessenan outside hand forces the level up → aggravate; the level is brought (or comes) down → lessen.

Also compared with mitigate, relieve, worsen

06TOEFL & IELTS

A high-value verb for cause-and-effect writing: policies, remarks and delays all 'aggravate' problems, tensions and inequalities, and careless exercise 'aggravates an injury' — the collocation examiners most expect. Note the legal pair 'aggravating circumstances' versus 'mitigating circumstances', a ready-made contrast for essays on crime. Keep the neighbours straight: aggravate implies an outside action making things worse, worsen can happen on its own, and exacerbate is the more formal, often accidental flare-up. In informal English aggravate also means annoy — fine in Speaking, but keep the make-worse sense in academic writing.

07Asked
Does aggravate mean 'annoy' or 'make worse'?
Both — and the fight over it is old. The annoy sense has been in print since the 1600s and most usage panels now accept it, yet formal writing still reserves aggravate for making a bad condition worse ('the delay aggravated the shortage'). Safe rule: in essays, aggravate problems; in conversation, aggravate people.
What does 'aggravated' mean in law, as in aggravated assault?
In criminal law, aggravated marks the heavier version of an offence — made more serious by a weapon, serious injury, or intent, and often reclassified from misdemeanour to felony. The legal use is the etymology working in public: Latin aggravare means 'to make heavier', so an aggravated crime is literally a weighted one.
What are aggravating and mitigating circumstances?
The two pans of the sentencing scale: aggravating circumstances (cruelty, a vulnerable victim, prior convictions) push a punishment up; mitigating circumstances (youth, remorse, duress) pull it down. The underlying verbs are opposites too — that contrast has its own page, aggravate vs mitigate, linked in the 'Compared' list above.
What does it mean to aggravate an injury?
To make an existing injury worse by using it too soon — the sports pages' standard verb ('he aggravated a hamstring strain'). The scene above is the anatomy of the phrase: a bandaged ankle, bearable until its owner starts bouncing on it, and a throb that jumps a size with every landing.
Where does aggravate come from?
From Latin aggravare, 'to make heavier', built on gravis — the same heavy root as grave, gravity and grief. Its mirror-image is alleviate, built on levis, 'light': one verb adds weight to a burden, the other lifts it off. The pair makes each easier to remember.
What is the difference between aggravate and exacerbate?
The short tell: aggravate usually has an outside hand in it — someone acting, often carelessly, on a bad situation — where exacerbate tends to describe the situation souring under its own weight. The full side-by-side — with both animated scenes — is on the aggravate vs exacerbate page in the 'Compared' list above, alongside this word's seven other pairings.