Melioration

2 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Melioration \Mel`io*ra"tion\, n. [L. melioratio.]
     The act or operation of meliorating, or the state of being
     meliorated; improvement. --Bacon.
     [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:



  melioration
       n 1: the act of relieving ills and changing for the better [syn:
            {amelioration}, {betterment}]
       2: a condition superior to an earlier condition; "the new
          school represents a great improvement" [syn: {improvement}]
          [ant: {decline}]
       3: the linguistic process in which over a period of time a word
          grows more positive in connotation or more elevated in
          meaning