From megas (great). To make great, to enlarge, to magnify, to extol. The word used by Mary in the Magnificat and by the early church to describe the exaltation of God's name.
Mary's song begins: 'My soul magnifies the Lord' (Luke 1:46) — the Magnificat, one of the most beloved passages in Scripture. To magnify God is not to make Him bigger (He is already infinite) but to declare His greatness, to make it visible and known. In Acts 10:46, the Gentile believers were heard 'magnifying God' after receiving the Spirit — evidence that the gospel had crossed ethnic boundaries. Paul's desire was that Christ would be 'magnified' in his body, whether by life or death (Philippians 1:20).