What does escalating mean?
"Escalating" is the present participle of the verb "escalate", meaning to increase rapidly in intensity, extent, or severity. It is most often applied to undesirable developments — escalating costs, escalating tensions, escalating violence — which gives it a distinctly ominous connotation: what is escalating is usually heading somewhere worse. The word can also be transitive, describing someone deliberately raising the stakes or intensity of a situation, and in business usage it means referring a matter to a higher level of authority. Remarkably, the verb is a twentieth-century back-formation from "escalator", itself coined around 1900; English speakers found the image of mechanical upward movement so vivid that they extracted a general verb from it. Today it is indispensable in journalism, politics, and everyday speech for describing crises that refuse to stay still.
verbPresent participle and gerund of "escalate": to increase rapidly in intensity, extent, or severity, or to cause something to do so.
- (Of a conflict, cost, problem, etc.) to increase rapidly in intensity, scope, or severity.
- To cause something to increase in this way; to raise to a higher level, especially by degrees.
- To refer an issue to a higher authority or level within an organisation.
"The escalating costs forced the council to abandon the project."
"Fighting between the two factions has been escalating for weeks despite ceasefire talks."
"If the complaint isn't resolved at branch level, it will be escalated to head office."
The word comes from a back-formation of "escalator" — a brand-new 1900 invention so striking that English promptly turned it into a verb for anything that climbs.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of escalating
"Escalating" derives from "escalate", which was formed in the early twentieth century as a back-formation from "escalator" (coined around 1900). The root is ultimately Latin "scala", meaning "ladder" or "staircase", the same root behind "scale" and "escalade". The verb originally evoked climbing steps, then broadened to mean any rapid increase in intensity or degree, and later acquired the business sense of referring an issue up a hierarchy.
Related word forms
How escalating is actually used
Neutral-to-negative connotation: escalating typically implies something is getting out of control. Common as an attributive modifier before nouns (an escalating crisis). The organisational sense of passing a case up the chain of command is chiefly business register.
Easily confused with escalating
"Elevating" means lifting or raising something to a higher position or level, while "escalating" means increasing rapidly in intensity or severity, often with negative connotations.