steigern

increase

verb SHTY-gern Less Common

Origin: from steigen ('to climb, rise')

Also means

intensify

Usage Note

steigern is transitive — you raise something, like sales or performance; to rise by itself you use steigen or the reflexive sich steigern. In grammar, steigern also means to form an adjective's comparative and superlative ('die Steigerung').

Examples

"Wir wollen den Umsatz steigern."

Natural Translation

We want to increase the revenue.

Literal Translation

We want the revenue to-increase.

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