amelioration
/əˌmiljəˈeɪʃən/uh-meel-yur-AY-shuhn
UK form converted from the US by rule · unchecked/əˌmiljɚˈeɪʃən/uh-meel-yur-AY-shuhn
Meaningthe act of ameliorating
Common meaning: making things better
Tap a word part to explore
- ato, towards, at (Latin ad-, often through French a-)
- meliorbetterLewis & Short, Latin Dictionary (1879), p. 1128 · scan
- atverb or adjective ending: to make, having
- ionnoun ending: act or result
‘to, towards, at (Latin ad-, often through French a-)’ + ‘better’ → amelioration
Journey through time
- Latinmelior, -ius‘better’
- Frenchameliorer
- Englishameliorate‘to improve’
- Englishformed in English from ameliorateamelioration‘making things better’ · today
Sources & notes
Meaning: “Meaning” is the sense that emerges from the word’s roots; “Common meaning” is today’s everyday sense. Both written by us.
Pronunciation
- UK IPA: converted from the US form by rule (unchecked). Respelling: generated.
- No UK recording; the speaker uses your device’s en-GB voice.
- US IPA: CMUdict (BSD-2), converted to IPA by rule. Respelling: generated.
- No US recording; the speaker uses your device’s en-US voice.
Origin: Formed in English from ameliorate + -ion.
Dictionary: Skeat (1898), AMELIORATE, p.20 · scan
Roots
- melior, -ius Latin “better”
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