melioration
Americannoun
-
Historical Linguistics. semantic change in a word to a more approved or more respectable meaning.
Etymology
Origin of melioration
1620–30; < Late Latin meliōrātiōn- (stem of meliōrātiō ), equivalent to meliōrāt ( us ) ( meliorate ) + -iōn- -ion
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
But professional reformation or melioration is usually an organic, incremental process.
From BusinessWeek • Nov. 22, 2011
The great melioration of human society which modern times exhibit, is mainly due to the incomplete substitution of the system of voluntary labor for the one of servile labor, which has already taken place.
From American Eloquence, Volume 3 Studies In American Political History (1897) by Johnston, Alexander
It is no less an evidence that their condition was in a state of melioration.
From Dissertation on Slavery With a Proposal for the Gradual Abolition of it, in the State of Virginia by Tucker, St. George
The act of ameliorating, or the state of being ameliorated; making or becoming better; improvement; melioration.
From Webster's Unabridged Dictionary by Webster, Noah
He demanded seven hundred pounds for the ground, and to be excused paying anything for the melioration of the rest of his ground that he was to keep.
From Old and New London Volume I by Thornbury, Walter
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
