modification
[mod-uh-fi-key-shuh n]
- an act or instance of modifying.
- the state of being modified; partial alteration.
- a modified form; variety.
- Biology. a change in a living organism acquired from its own activity or environment and not transmitted to its descendants.
- limitation or qualification.
- Grammar.
- the use of a modifier in a construction, or of modifiers in a class of constructions or in a language.
- the meaning of a modifier, especially as it affects the meaning of the word or other form modified: Limitation is one kind of modification.
- a change in the phonological shape of a morpheme, word, or other form when it functions as an element in a construction, as the change of not to -n't in doesn't.
- an adjustment in the form of a word as it passes from one language to another.
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Origin of modification
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for modification
Contemporary Examples
To be clear, these numbers are exactly what each organization reported without manipulation or modification.
Trafficking is complicated and the source material is subject to “modification.”
It is not clear if this could lead to a modification of stated U.S. policy that Iran should not have “one centrifuge turning.”
With every modification, that nostalgia starts to look and feel more like a dream.
RULES ARE SUBJECT TO MODIFICATION BY THE NEWSWEEK DAILY BEAST COMPANY.
Newsweek & The Daily Beast-Open Hands Prize for Commentary: Official RulesThe Daily Beast
May 4, 2012
Historical Examples
No modification of the divine certainty, the entire truth, is possible.
The Three Cities Trilogy, CompleteEmile Zola
As you say, however, it is not a change but only a modification, since the root idea is the same in each.
The Stark Munro LettersJ. Stark Munro
It may be asked how far I extend the doctrine of the modification of species.
It was a modification of the high-liner ball-control, and it was new.
The Finding of HaldgrenCharles Willard Diffin
He searched ahead on the hillside above him for a modification of its slope.
The Golden WomanRidgwell Cullum
modification
- the act of modifying or the condition of being modified
- something modified; the result of a modification
- a small change or adjustment
- grammar the relation between a modifier and the word or phrase that it modifies
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Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Word Origin and History for modification
n.
c.1500, in philosophy, from Middle French modification (14c.) and directly from Latin modificationem (nominative modificatio) "a measuring," noun of action from past participle stem of modificare (see modify). Meaning "alteration to an object to bring it up to date" is from 1774. Biological sense is attested by 1896.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
modification
(mŏd′ə-fĭ-kā′shən)- Any of the changes in an organism that are caused by environment or activity and are not genetically transmissable to offspring.
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The American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.
modification
[mŏd′ə-fĭ-kā′shən]
- A change in an organism that results from external influences and cannot be inherited.
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The American Heritage® Science Dictionary
Copyright © 2011. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.