Describing something that tends to increase in intensity, seriousness, or scale, especially in a conflict or tense situation.
From 'escalate' plus the suffix '-ory' (meaning 'relating to' or 'tending to'). Formed in the 20th century as conflicts and tensions demanded vocabulary to describe spiraling situations.
During the Cold War, military strategists used 'escalatory' constantly to describe how conflicts could spiral—the word itself became a tool for thinking about nuclear risk!
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