readjustment

American  

[ree-uh-juhst-muhnt] / ˌri əˈdʒʌst mənt /

noun

1. an act of readjusting or the state of being readjusted.

2. Finance. a rearrangement in the financial structure of a corporation, usually less drastic than a reorganization.

---

Etymology

Origin of readjustment

First recorded in 1765–75; readjust + -ment

Explanation

If you have to make changes to something, you make a readjustment. You make readjustments all the time — like when you lower the bike seat for your little sister or set your clock forward for daylight saving time. The noun readjustment refers to the act of recalibrating something to match a standard. If you are a scientist, you may be constantly making readjustments to your instruments in order to obtain accurate data. If you're at home, you may have to make some readjustments to your television recording device. The clock is set wrong again and it keeps cutting off the end of your favorite shows, which is super annoying.

Example Sentences

The rating readjustment reflects Citi’s house view on software.

From Barron's • Apr. 10, 2026

The story “Soldier’s Home” reveals a young man’s difficult readjustment to civilian life, his parents’ pressure as he returns from the war and his rejection of their conventional values.

From The Wall Street Journal • Oct. 24, 2025

At Headingley, former skipper Anthony McGrath is now in charge, but a period of readjustment can be expected.

From BBC • Apr. 2, 2025

So in mid-April, after about six months of artificial impact winter, the tarps came down, the acid baths stopped and the whitewash was scraped off the glass, an abbreviated version of the Paleogene’s gradual readjustment.

From Los Angeles Times • May 31, 2023

By the late 1940s, Monod had discovered that the kink was the result of a metabolic readjustment.

From "The Gene" by Siddhartha Mukherjee

Related Words

• adjustment
• reconstruction
• rehabilitation