To aggrandize means to make something or someone seem greater, more important, or more powerful than it really is. When a student aggrandizes their role in a group project, they exaggerate how much work they did and downplay everyone else's contributions. A politician might aggrandize their accomplishments by claiming sole credit for changes that many people helped create.

The word often carries a whiff of dishonesty or exaggeration. Someone who aggrandizes themselves is engaging in a kind of bragging that stretches or distorts the truth. If your friend caught three fish on a camping trip but tells everyone he caught dozens, he's aggrandizing his fishing skills.

You can also aggrandize things beyond yourself. A tour guide might aggrandize the history of a small town by calling it “the most important place in American history” when it was merely the site of one minor event. Companies sometimes aggrandize their products in advertisements, making ordinary features sound revolutionary.

The related noun is aggrandizement: the act of making yourself or something seem more impressive. Self-aggrandizement describes someone constantly trying to make themselves look better, smarter, or more important than they are.