emend

[ ih-mend ]

verb (used with object)

1. to edit or change (a text).
2. to free from faults or errors; correct.

emend

/ ɪˈmɛnd /

verb

1. tr to make corrections or improvements in (a text) by critical editing

Derived Forms

• eˈmendable, adjective

Other Words From

• e·menda·ble adjective
• none·menda·ble adjective
• une·menda·ble adjective
• une·mended adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of emend¹

1375–1425; late Middle English (< Middle French emender ) < Latin ēmendāre “to correct,” equivalent to ē- e- ¹ + mend(um) “fault” + -āre infinitive suffix

Word History and Origins

Origin of emend¹

C15: from Latin ēmendāre to correct, from ē- out + mendum a mistake

Synonym Study

See amend.

Example Sentences

Bowman lived in New York, and had no children—surely it wasn’t much to ask for him to emend a plan?

From The New Yorker

And it grows increasingly clear that the document in Voth’s hands has itself been “doctored”—emended, rectified, ardently ministered to, but also violated.

From The New Yorker

“They can’t leave them,” said I, and then, emending: “We. We cannot be.”

From Literature

In his 1897 novel, “An Antarctic Mystery,” he saw fit to emend Poe, rescuing Pym from the boiling sea only to kill him off on a lodestone mountain.

From The New Yorker

Several verbs ending in t or d have all but dropped the emending in the past tense.

From Literature