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melioration
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mel·io·ra·tion
/
ˌmil
yəˈreɪ
ʃən, ˌmi
li
ə-
/
Show Spelled
[
meel-y
uh
-
rey
-sh
uh
n, mee-lee-
uh
-
]
Show IPA
noun
1.
Historical Linguistics
.
semantic change in a
word
to a more approved or more respectable meaning. Compare
pejoration
(
def 2
)
.
2.
amelioration
.
Origin:
1620–30;
<
Late Latin
meliōrātiōn-
(stem of
meliōrātiō
), equivalent to
meliōrāt
(
us
) (see
meliorate
) +
-iōn-
-ion
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2013.
Cite This Source
|
Link To
melioration
Collins
World English Dictionary
melioration
(ˌmiːlɪəˈreɪʃən)
—
n
the act or an instance of improving or the state of being improved
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
Cite This Source
Relevant Questions
What Is Meliorative?
What Is Meliorism?
What Is Meliorate?
What Is Meliorative?
What Is Meliorate?
What Is Meliorism?
00:10
Melioration
is always a great word to know.
So is
ninnyhammer
. Does it mean:
So is
doohickey
. Does it mean:
So is
zedonk
. Does it mean:
a fool or simpleton; ninny.
a screen or mat covered with a dark material for shielding a camera lens from excess light or glare.
a chattering or flighty, light-headed person.
a gadget; dingus; thingumbob.
the offspring of a zebra and a donkey.
a scrap or morsel of food left at a meal.
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Matching Quote
"If for Americans, at least, the Great War could sometimes be imagined as a brief, quasi-athletic lark, the Second War permitted no such
melioration
by the spirit of adolescent optimism. In North Africa alone, the 1st Infantry Division spent more time in mortal contact with the enemy than all the time it spent—forming up, marching, drawing equipment, lining up at the mess hall, training, bitching—in all of the First World War. And on December 7, 1941, the American navy lost in one day more men killed—2008, to be exact—than in all the days of the earlier war. The Second World War, total and global as it was, killed worldwide, more civilian men, women, and children than soldiers, sailors, and airmen. And compared with the idiocies of Verdun, Gallipoli, or Tannenberg, it was indescribably cruel and insane. It was not until the Second World War had enacted all its madness that one could realize how near Victorian social and ethical norms the First World War really was."
-Paul Fussell
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Synonyms
civilization
augmentation
breakthrough
proficiency
enhancement
improvement
cultivation
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impetus
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