melioration
Americannoun
-
Historical Linguistics. semantic change in a word to a more approved or more respectable meaning.
noun
Etymology
Origin of melioration
1620–30; < Late Latin meliōrātiōn- (stem of meliōrātiō ), equivalent to meliōrāt ( us ) ( see 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 condition of mankind is in a state of melioration, as far as misery arises from ignorance, for as the world grows older it must grow wiser, if wisdom arises from experience."
From Answer to Dr. Priestley's Letters to a Philosophical Unbeliever by Matthew Turner
In this case, also, the air has never failed to be restored; but then it might be suspected that the melioration was produced by the addition of some more wholesome ingredient.
From Experiments and Observations on Different Kinds of Air by Joseph Priestley
All is quiet in Holland and Belgium; and all is awaiting the melioration which time and wisdom must bring.
From Graham's Magazine, Vol XXXIII, No. 6, December 1848 by Various
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 St. George Tucker
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.
