What Are Intensifiers?
Intensifiers are adverbs or adverbials that modify other adjectives and adverbs by making them stronger. Intensifiers are a subgroup of adverbs known as adverbs of degree.
Examples of intensifiers:
- I’m extremely tired.
- Your little one is very cute!
- The dress is super tight; I don’t like it.
- My dog is highly intelligent.
The Sanchez sisters are strikingly beautiful.
Note: A majority of intensifiers end in “-ly.”
Types of Intensifiers
Depending on the context and the words they’re modifying or strengthening, intensifiers can either be positive or negative.
Positive Intensifiers
Intensifiers that mostly modify words or expressions that are positive in nature are known as positive intensifiers.
Examples of positive intensifiers with sentence examples:
| Positive Intensifier | Sentence Example |
| Truly | She is a truly devoted mother. |
| Completely | It’s a completely new and effective solution to the traffic problem. |
| Remarkably | She has done remarkably well in this year’s exam. |
| Incredibly | He is an incredibly talented artist. |
| Phenomenally | She is a phenomenally gifted musician. |
| Exceptionally | John is an exceptionally good chef. |
| Extraordinarily | Marilyn was an extraordinarily beautiful actress. |
| Supremely | The captain is supremely confident about winning the match. |
| Amazingly | He is an amazingly good guitarist. |
| Terrifically | She is a terrifically gorgeous model. |
Negative Intensifiers
Intensifiers that mostly modify words or expressions that are negative in nature are known as negative intensifiers.
Examples of negative intensifiers with sentence examples:
| Negative Intensifier | Sentence Example |
| Disgustingly | The washrooms were disgustingly dirty. |
| Dreadfully | It was a dreadfully emotional story. |
| Awfully | It’s awfully cold today. |
| Horribly | Something seemed horribly wrong with Jake. He could barely stand. |
| Utterly | He felt utterly hopeless when he lost his mother to cancer. |
| Bitterly | The employees were bitterly disappointed when they were given the pink slip. |
| Frightfully | He drove at a frightfully high speed; it was scary. |
| Terribly | She is terribly upset about not getting the promotion. |
| Ridiculously | The items on sale are ridiculously expensive. |
| Dangerously | The advertisement is dangerously misleading. |
Intensifiers, Mitigators, and Non-Gradable Adjectives
While it is a common practice to use intensifiers and mitigators with gradable adjectives, they should not be used with non-gradable adjectives.
Non-gradable adjectives can neither be strengthened nor be weakened because they are absolute. For instance, “dead” is a non-gradable adjective, which is absolute. It doesn’t make sense to say that someone is extremely dead or slightly dead. Therefore, it doesn’t make sense to use intensifiers or mitigators with non-gradable adjectives.
What Are Mitigators?
Mitigators are the opposite of intensifiers. While intensifiers strengthen other words, mitigators make other words less extreme or powerful.
Examples of Mitigators:
| Mitigators | Sentence Examples |
| Slightly | There’s a slightly increased risk of infection post the surgery. |
| Fairly | Diabetes is a fairly common disease. |
| A bit | My painting still requires a bit of work. |
| Pretty | I ate a pretty big chunk of cake. |
| Rather | It’s rather warm today. |
