Word of the Day Archive
Friday July 16, 1999
ameliorate \uh-MEEL-yuh-rayt\
, transitive verb:
1. To make better; to improve.
intransitive verb:
1. To grow better.
Among the pressures provoking these distresses were a father's financial inadequacy and a growing awareness that, by finding employment himself, he could ameliorate the family's exiguous circumstances.
-- Terence Brown, The Life of W. B. Yeats: A Critical Biography
In the socially fluid and (until the crash of 1837) economically expansive 1830s, the legislature frequently appropriated public money to investigate social problems, forestall dependency, and ameliorate human suffering.
-- Elisabeth Gitter, The Imprisoned Guest
Ameliorate is derived from Latin ad + meliorare, "to make better," from melior, "better."
Dictionary.com Entry and Pronunciation for ameliorate
