ameliorate
verb
Did you know?
Ameliorate traces back to melior, a Latin adjective meaning "better," and is a rather formal synonym of the verbs better and improve. When is it better to use ameliorate? Allow us to improve your understanding: if a situation is bad, ameliorate indicates that the conditions have been made more tolerable. Thus, one might refer to medicine that ameliorates pain from an injury, a loss of wages ameliorated by unemployment benefits, or a harsh law ameliorated by special exceptions. Improve and better apply when something bad is getting better or being made better (as in "the weather improved" or "she bettered her lot in life"), and they should always be chosen over ameliorate when something good is getting better still ("he improved his successful program," "she bettered her impressive scores").
Examples of ameliorate in a Sentence
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
trying to ameliorate the suffering of people who have lost their jobs
This medicine should help ameliorate the pain.
Inkoo Kang, New Yorker, 25 Oct. 2025
While many winemakers around the globe are seeking higher sites to ameliorate the effects of a warming planet, others have chosen to plant on mountaintops purely to make the best wine possible.
—Mike Desimone, Robb Report, 28 Sep. 2025
But nothing David makes for dinner or tries to say seems enough to compel her to eat, let alone ameliorate her depressive state and anorexic behavior.
—Leslie Felperin, HollywoodReporter, 25 Sep. 2025
Deep Fission's plan is to ameliorate these problems by radically shifting the reactor location.
—New Atlas, 21 Sep. 2025
See All Example Sentences for ameliorate
Cite this Entry
“Ameliorate.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/ameliorate. Accessed 29 Oct. 2025.
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ameliorate
verb
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