student asking question

Do "Shore up", "build up", "strength" mean all the same?

teacher

Native speaker’s answer

Rebecca

To answer your question, they have similar definitions, but they aren't exactly the same. "Shore up" means to support, help or strengthen. "Build up" means to develop or improve gradually. "Strength" means to be strong or tough. However, if you changed "strength" to "strengthen" the definition changes: to make stronger; to build up. By changing this word slightly, it then makes these three words have the same meaning. In the examples below, I used the three words that we discussed, but they all mean the same thing. Ex: The military shored up their defenses. Ex: The military built up their defenses. Ex: The military strengthened their defenses. Thank you for your great question!

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