misheard word

[Archie]

Again there's wax in my ears.This excerpt is from bbc news.

Talks aimed to get Iran to give up its nuclear programme seem to (enhesibrate-inhisibrate???) war.

[Temico]

Could it be "anticipate"??

[Archie]

That occured to me too at first, but no matter how many times I rewind it, it still sounds like something else

[Curious Cat]

It must have been "exacerbate" - to make smth. worse


Cheers, CC

[Temico]

It must have been "exacerbate" - to make smth. worse

If the word is "exacerbate", then the sentence would be "Talks aimed to get Iran to give up its nuclear programme seem to exacerbate war." = "Talks aimed to get Iran to give up its nuclear programme seem to make war worse".
This wouldn't make any sense because there is no ongoing war with Iran!

[Curious Cat]

But could it be that they meant just a sort of a steady confrontation between the countries by "war"? Actually that's what I was thinking of when giving "exacerbate" as a version. I might be wrong though...

[Temico]

If they used "exacerbate", the sentence would read something like this:-

"Talks aimed to get Iran to give up its nuclear programme seem to exacerbate the likelihood/advent of war".

[Archie]

It's not "exacerbate".I've heard that word pronounced many times.
Anticipate is nearer to that word, but to my ears it's something else.
If only I could send "voice mail" so that you could listen it yourself.

[Curious Cat]

Yeah I understand.
It would be helpful perhaps if Archie gave us the previous sentence and the next one after that in question.

[Temico]

You can send the "voice mail" to << EMAIL REMOVED - Send PM to This User Instead >> and perhaps, I would be able to tell you what the word (or words) was after hearing it.