ameliorate
Americanverb (used with or without object)
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ameliorates,
present (3rd person singular)
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ameliorated,
past participle, past
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ameliorating
present participle
verb
Usage
What are other ways to say ameliorate?
To ameliorate is to make or become better, more bearable, or more satisfactory. How is it different from the verbs improve and better? Find out on Thesaurus.com.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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ameliorablenessnoun
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ameliorantnoun
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amelioratornoun
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ameliorableadjective
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ameliorativeadjective
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amelioratoryadjective
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unameliorableadjective
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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amelioratesimple
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amelioratessimple
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have amelioratedperfect
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has amelioratedperfect
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am amelioratingprogressive
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are amelioratingprogressive
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is amelioratingprogressive
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have been amelioratingperfect progressive
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has been amelioratingperfect progressive
Past
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amelioratedsimple
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had amelioratedperfect
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was amelioratingprogressive
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were amelioratingprogressive
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had been amelioratingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of ameliorate
Explanation
To ameliorate is to step in and make a bad situation better. You could try introducing a second lollipop to ameliorate a battle between two toddlers over a single lollipop. The verb ameliorate comes from the Latin word meliorare, meaning “improve.” Food drives can ameliorate hunger. An air conditioner can ameliorate the discomfort of a stiflingly hot summer day. A sympathy card can ameliorate grief. Family therapy can ameliorate severe sibling rivalry. Anything that can lift a burden or make something better can ameliorate.
Vocabulary lists containing ameliorate
100 SAT Words Beginning with "A"
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The Crucible
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Frankenstein
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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.
See Examples For:
His writings undergirded his cabinet’s reforms in the 1870s to ameliorate living and working conditions.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 12, 2026
Exercising for two hours a day can partially ameliorate this issue, but it doesn’t prevent the problem entirely.
From Slate ● Mar. 1, 2026
Some legislation has been proposed to ameliorate the concerns, or at least lay the legal groundwork for an unconventional quick-turn census.
From Salon ● Aug. 15, 2025
That is, historically, what presidents have done: Facing volatile circumstances, confronting crises, they summon the powers of their office to explain, to ameliorate, to reassure and above all, to try to calm the situation.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 9, 2025
The accused have told me and their counsel have told me that the accused who were all leaders of the non-European population were motivated entirely by a desire to ameliorate these grievances.
From "Long Walk to Freedom" by Nelson Mandela
In a way, this ameliorates those perfections of generational righteousness that some people took issues with, especially in early episodes where the character exemplified some of the worst millennial clichés imaginable.
From Salon ● May 12, 2022
"Overall, greater international co-operation is needed to ensure that ESG and climate transition-related practices progress in a manner that ameliorates the current market fragmentation, and strengthens investor confidence and market integrity."
From Reuters ● Oct. 4, 2021
Exercise improves cardiac health, reduces the risk of cancer, and ameliorates anxiety and depression.
From Slate ● Jun. 19, 2021
Charity, while wonderful, ameliorates the symptoms of inequality, but it does not address its root causes.
From The Guardian ● Jan. 27, 2020
Misfortunes are, in morals, what bitters are in medicine: each is at first disagreeable; but as the bitters act as corroborants to the stomach, so adversity chastens and ameliorates the disposition.—From the French.
From Many Thoughts of Many Minds A Treasury of Quotations from the Literature of Every Land and Every Age by Louis Klopsch
On that, Buchbinder is optimistic that a key cause of rising rates, higher energy costs, will be ameliorated in coming months.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 14, 2026
The 40-foot elevation drop from the General Hospital forecourt to the commercial hub will be ameliorated by raising the low area about 20 feet.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 12, 2026
It would have been a lot to ask that Simkhovitch, idealistic and self-sacrificing, predict that immigrant poverty and its housing conditions would be ameliorated with time.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 24, 2026
Medication also ameliorated the physical symptoms of anxiety and hypervigilance.
From BBC ● Jan. 25, 2025
Spring drew on: she was indeed already come; the frosts of winter had ceased; its snows were melted, its cutting winds ameliorated.
From "Jane Eyre" by Charlotte Brontë
Her conundrum has lately been making me think about Daniel Shapiro's fascinating book, "Negotiating the Nonnegotiable," and his clear-eyed examination of the roles of tribalism and identity in accelerating conflict — and in ameliorating it.
From Salon ● Apr. 23, 2025
Whatever you think of their intended goals, they would also have an unintended effect of ameliorating one of the worst features of the property tax: its localism.
From Slate ● Jan. 6, 2025
The $3 million allocation is the first major assistance directed toward ameliorating the spiraling humanitarian crisis since people first began arriving at the church last December.
From Seattle Times ● Dec. 6, 2023
The researchers employed a novel computational method developed earlier by Morgun and Shulzhenko, transkingdom network analysis, to uncover TXN's mechanism for ameliorating metabolic syndrome.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 21, 2023
She had a notion about the air down here and its ameliorating effects on the circulation.
From "The Underground Railroad: A Novel" by Colson Whitehead
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.
