melioration

M3E1L1I1O1R1A1T1I1O1N1

A form of amelioration — The act of making better.

Scrabble 13

Meanings

nounmelioration (countable and uncountable, plural meliorations)

plural meliorations

  1. archaiccountableuncountableArchaic form of amelioration.
    1 more example

    It would seem that the rise and progress of this Republic; the spread of our ocean commerce; the building of a thousand cities; the rush of the world to our shores; the peopling of our boundless plains; the rapid birth of new States into our Union; the triumph of our arms; our repeated accessions of territory; our maritime and commercial superiority; our foreign discoveries; our inventions in mechanism; our discoveries in science; the use of steam, and electricity; our statesmanship, and foreign diplomacy; a thousand miraculous incidents of individual enterprise and success; the discovery of gold, of silver, and iron; our internal improvements and meliorations; our national prestige; and finally, our greatness and glory as a nation, — ought to suffice for any reasonable conception of the marvellous, as they outstrip the more ignoble creations of fancy, and absolutely invade the former domain of fiction and romance.

    1860, True Worthy Hoit, The Right of American Slavery

Synonyms & antonyms

nounthe act of relieving ills and changing for the better

nouna condition superior to an earlier condition

Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.

Origin

  1. Latinmeliōrātiō
  2. Englishmelioration

From Latin meliōrātiō.

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

melioration. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/melioration

MLA

“melioration.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/melioration. Accessed November 2, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “melioration,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/melioration.

Source: melioration on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.