Sharpen

How to spell sharpen

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce sharpen

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does sharpen mean?

1. verbTo make something have a finer edge or point, or to make something clearer or more effective.

Sharpen in a sentence

• A quick stroke on the stone will sharpen the kitchen knife.

• Editors often sharpen a vague paragraph before publication.

Where does sharpen come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This word is built from the native English adjective 'sharp', which comes from the Old English 'scearp', meaning keen-edged or cutting. That word has solid Germanic roots, with relatives like the Dutch 'scherp' and the German 'scharf', all going back to a shared ancestor meaning something that cuts or pierces. The ending '-en' is an old and productive English suffix that turns an adjective into a verb meaning 'to make' or 'to become', the same pattern seen in 'darken', 'widen', and 'soften'. 'Sharpen' itself appears in English from around the fifteenth century, replacing the older simple verb 'sharp', which once did the same job on its own. The spelling is regular and phonetic, so the only mild trap is remembering the unstressed '-en' rather than writing it as '-on' or '-in'.

How the word is built

• sharp (keen-edged)
• -en (verb-forming suffix meaning 'to make')