You’re sitting there, staring at a sentence like "I need to more my life," or maybe you've heard someone say they want to "more" their productivity. Your brain probably glitches. It feels wrong. It smells like a typo. Most people will tell you that "more" is an adjective, an adverb, or maybe a determiner. They aren't lying to you, but they aren't giving you the whole story either. Language is a messy, living thing that doesn't care about the rules in your 5th-grade textbook.
Honestly, the question of whether is more a verb is actually a deep dive into how English evolves through a process called functional shift.
We see this everywhere. We "google" things. We "uber" to the airport. Nouns turn into verbs constantly. But "more" is a comparative. It’s a quantifier. It’s the word we use to measure the gap between what we have and what we want. Can a quantifier actually function as an action? Linguistically speaking, the answer is "kinda." It depends on whether you're looking at a dictionary from 1950 or watching how people actually speak on TikTok and in corporate boardrooms today.
The Linguistic Reality of More as an Action
If you look at the formal definitions provided by Oxford or Merriam-Webster, you won't find "more" listed as a verb. Not yet, anyway. In standard English, "more" modifies things. It’s a helper. You want more coffee. You are more tired than you were yesterday. In these cases, it's doing the heavy lifting for other words.
But language has this weird habit of "verbing" words to save time. Linguists call this anthimeria.
Think about the phrase "to more." While it sounds clunky, it’s beginning to surface in niche productivity circles and certain dialectical slang. People use it to describe the act of increasing, expanding, or augmenting without needing a clunky syllable-heavy word like "accumulate." If I say, "I'm looking to more my savings," you know exactly what I mean. I’m treating "more" as the action itself.
Is it "correct"? In a formal essay, absolutely not. In the way humans actually communicate? It’s a fascinating edge case of grammatical evolution.
Why We Are Obsessed With Verbing Everything
Our culture is obsessed with optimization. That’s the truth of it. Because we want everything to be faster, we start stripping language down to its barest bones.
"Increase" feels like a corporate report.
"Expand" feels like a balloon.
"More" as a verb? That feels like a direct command to the universe.
There's a psychological weight to it. When we take a word that represents a quantity and turn it into a movement, we are essentially saying that the state of having "more" is a continuous process. It isn’t a destination you reach; it’s something you do.
The Functional Shift Phenomenon
Let's look at some history. The word "friend" was strictly a noun for centuries. Then social media happened. Now, "to friend" or "to unfriend" is a standard verb recognized by everyone. This happens because humans are fundamentally lazy with their mouths. We want the shortest path between a thought and a listener's understanding.
- We identify a concept (More).
- We realize the existing verbs (Increase/Augment) are too formal.
- We force the concept word into the verb slot.
- If enough people do it, the dictionary follows.
This is exactly why people keep asking if is more a verb. They are sensing the shift before the gatekeepers of the English language have officially signed off on it. It’s like seeing a path worn through the grass in a park—it’s not a "road" on the map, but it’s where everyone is actually walking.
Comparing "More" to Traditional Verbs
If we want to be technical—and since you're reading this, you probably do—we have to look at how "more" behaves if we try to conjugate it. This is where the wheels usually fall off the wagon for people who want "more" to be a real verb.
If "more" is a verb, can you "mored" something yesterday?
"I mored my efforts last week."
It sounds like you're having a stroke.
What about the present participle?
"I am moring my collection."
Actually, that sounds a bit like "mooring" a boat.
This phonological confusion—the fact that "moring" sounds like "mooring" or "mooring"—is one of the biggest reasons "more" struggles to make the jump into the verb category. Unlike "google," which has a unique sound, "more" is already crowded out by homophones and established grammatical duties.
The Influence of Global English and Slang
In some non-standard dialects of English, specifically in certain Caribbean patois or AAVE (African American Vernacular English), words often shift functions in ways that Standard American English doesn't expect. You might hear someone say "More that" as a command. Here, "more" acts as an imperative verb meaning "increase that" or "add to that."
It's efficient. It's punchy.
We also see this in the "hustle culture" of the 2020s. On platforms like LinkedIn or X (formerly Twitter), you see people using language in a way that prioritizes speed over syntax. If a CEO says, "We need to more our output," the employees don't stop to correct his grammar. They get to work. In this context, the word has successfully transitioned because it achieved the primary goal of language: the transfer of intent.
Notable Linguists on Word Class Flexibility
Dr. Anne Curzan, a linguist at the University of Michigan, has spoken extensively about how we "verb" nouns and other parts of speech. She notes that English is particularly prone to this because we don't have many word endings that specify what a word is. In a language like Spanish, you can tell a verb because it usually ends in -ar, -er, or -ir. In English, a word is whatever we say it is based on where we put it in the sentence.
If I say "The more the merrier," "more" is a noun-equivalent.
If I say "I want more," it’s a pronoun.
If I say "More the fire," (meaning to stoke it), I’ve just birthed a verb.
Is More a Verb in Technical or Coding Contexts?
Interestingly, in some programming languages or logic systems, "more" can act as a command or a function. While not a "verb" in the linguistic sense, it functions as one in a symbolic sense. It’s an operator.
In the Unix world, more is a command used to view the contents of a text file one screen at a time. When a programmer types more filename, they are literally using "more" as a verb. They are telling the computer: "More this file for me." This technical usage often bleeds back into real-world speech. It’s common for tech-heavy circles to start using their terminal commands as everyday slang.
Common Misconceptions About Word Categories
Most people think word categories are set in stone. They think a word is born a verb and dies a verb.
That’s just not how it works.
Take the word "impact." For a long time, purists screamed that "impact" was a noun, not a verb. You could have an impact, but you couldn't impact something. They lost. Today, "to impact" is used everywhere from classrooms to courtrooms. "More" is currently in that awkward "limbo" phase. It’s being tested by the public.
- Myth: Words have a "true" grammatical identity.
- Reality: Words have a "historical" usage that is constantly being overwritten.
The Verdict: Can You Use It?
If you're writing a dissertation for an Ivy League professor, don't use "more" as a verb. You’ll get a red line through your paper and a lecture on the decline of Western civilization.
However, if you're writing marketing copy, a casual blog post, or a script for a video, using "more" as a verb can actually be a clever stylistic choice. It catches the eye because it’s "wrong." It signals that you are part of a fast-moving, modern conversation.
It’s a linguistic "hack."
How to Handle "More" in Your Own Writing
So, you want to experiment with the word "more." How do you do it without sounding like you just forgot how to speak English?
Context is everything. You need to wrap the word in enough familiar structure so the reader's brain knows you're being intentional.
Bad example: "I will more the house." (What does this even mean? More furniture? More paint?)
Better example: "We need to more our efforts if we want to hit this deadline." (The meaning is clear: increase.)
Expert Level: Use it as a self-aware rhetorical device. "In a world of less, we decided to more." It’s poetic, even if it breaks the rules.
Practical Steps for Language Evolution
If you're interested in how words like "more" shift their roles, here is how you can stay ahead of the curve:
- Observe usage patterns: Pay attention to how Gen Z and Gen Alpha use quantifiers. They are the primary drivers of functional shifts.
- Test the "verbiness": If you can add an "-ing" to it and people don't look at you like you're an alien, the word is successfully transitioning.
- Check the "More" command: If you're a developer, look at how command-line interfaces use quantifiers as actions. It's a preview of where the spoken language might go.
- Read "Words on the Move" by John McWhorter: He explains beautifully why these "errors" are actually the lifeblood of a healthy language.
Language doesn't belong to the dictionary. It belongs to the people who speak it. Whether is more a verb becomes a permanent fixture of our grammar depends entirely on whether we find it useful enough to keep saying it. For now, it’s a fascinating glitch in the matrix of English.
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To get a better handle on this, start by looking for other "non-verbs" that people are using as actions in your industry. You’ll be surprised how many "mores" are hiding in plain sight. Keep your ears open for the next time someone tries to "effort" a project or "task" a coworker. The shift is already happening all around you.