ameliorate
verb
transitive verb
intransitive verb
Did you know?
Ameliorate traces back to melior, the Latin adjective meaning "better," and is a synonym of the verbs better and improve. When is it better to use ameliorate? If a situation is bad, ameliorate indicates that the conditions have been made more tolerable. Thus, one might refer to drugs that ameliorate the side effects of chemotherapy, a loss of wages ameliorated by unemployment benefits, or a harsh law ameliorated by special exceptions. Improve and better apply when something bad is being made better (as in "the weather improved" or "she bettered her lot in life"), and they should certainly be chosen over ameliorate when something good is getting better still ("he improved his successful program," "she bettered her impressive scores").
Synonyms
- amend
- better
- enhance
- enrich
- help
- improve
- meliorate
- perfect
- refine
- upgrade
Example Sentences
Edward F. Sherman, Texas Law Review, June 1998 And, after all, some illnesses are psychogenic. Many can be at least ameliorated by a positive cast of mind. Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World, 1996 Even the abolitionists gave their attention not to the task of ameliorating conditions among slaves but to transforming slaves into free people. John Hope Franklin, "The Land of Room Enough," 1981, in Race and History, 1989 trying to ameliorate the suffering of people who have lost their jobs This medicine should help ameliorate the pain. Zachariah Hughes, Anchorage Daily News, 21 Aug. 2022 American Airlines is offering pilots raises of nearly 17% by the end of 2024, a sign that the airline is trying to ameliorate the staffing shortages that have plagued the industry. CBS News, 1 July 2022 The fixes on offer, while late in arriving, could be sufficient to ameliorate the current crisis. Grace Segers, The New Republic, 18 May 2022 Congressional leaders in the House and Senate introduced The Reforming Disaster Recovery Act to ameliorate America’s ailing disaster recovery system. Priscilla Almodovar, Fortune, 17 May 2022 Steady and consistent support to buy down cost burden for housing especially would ameliorate real suffering, promote and support better financial planning for families, and allow many households to begin saving and paying down debt. Roger Valdez, Forbes, 3 Aug. 2022 There, officials have spent $2.5 billion to mitigate the dust, deploying a variety of creative methods to ameliorate the problem. The Salt Lake Tribune, 2 Aug. 2022 Some scholars have argued that simply making end-of-life-planning documents more accessible can ameliorate these complications. Michael Waters, The Atlantic, 17 May 2022 Congress can pass a law in most cases to ameliorate or roll back a Supreme Court opinion. James Brown, USA TODAY, 26 June 2022 See More Word History
alteration of meliorate — see meliorate
1656, in the meaning defined at transitive sense
ameliorates
verb
Synonyms & Similar Words
- improves
- enhances
- remediates
- enriches
- refines
- remedies
- helps
- amends
- perfects
- reinforces
- meliorates
- betters
- upgrades
- rectifies
- corrects
- strengthens
- intensifies
- rehabilitates
- revises
- emends
- reforms
- boosts
- fortifies
- refurbishes
- reworks
- reenforces
- fine-tunes
- hones
- revamps
- edits
- fines
- redrafts
- rehabs
- retouches
- polishes
- touches up
- beefs (up)
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
- worsens
- impairs
- harms
- reduces
- hurts
- injures
- vitiates
- damages
- tarnishes
- diminishes
- spoils
- flaws
- lessens
- disfigures
- blights
- lowers
- defaces
- mars
- endamages
- blemishes