ameliorate

<font size="-1" face="arial, helvetica"> <p> <strong> <font color="#000066">Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for July 21, 2023 is:</font> </strong> </p> <p> <strong>ameliorate</strong> &#149; \uh-MEE-lee-uh-rayt\&nbsp; &#149; <em>verb</em><br /> <p><em>Ameliorate</em> is a formal word that means "to make something, such as a problem, better or more tolerable."</p> <p>// The council is reviewing a plan that aims to <em>ameliorate</em> the town's affordable housing crisis. </p> <p><a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/ameliorate">See the entry ></a></p> </p> <p> <strong>Examples:</strong><br /> <p>"With many institutions embracing diversified forms of student enrollment, we believe that colleges and universities must be able to evaluate the experiences of <em>all</em> their students if they are going to truly embrace equity. To achieve this, leaders must ... strategically act to <em>ameliorate</em> any differences across student groups. While this might seem ... obvious, our research revealed that not many colleges are presently engaging in such comparisons." — Joshua Travis Brown and Joseph M. Kush, <em>Inside Higher Ed</em>, 15 June 2023</p> </p> <p> <strong>Did you know?</strong><br /> <p><em>Ameliorate</em> traces back to <em>melior</em>, a Latin adjective meaning "better," and is a rather formal synonym of the verbs <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/better#h2"><em>better</em></a> and <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/improve"><em>improve</em></a>. When is it better to use <em>ameliorate</em>? Allow us to improve your understanding: if a situation is bad, <em>ameliorate</em> indicates that the conditions have been made more tolerable. Thus, one might refer to medicine that ameliorates pain from an injury, a loss of wages ameliorated by unemployment benefits, or a harsh law ameliorated by special exceptions. <em>Improve</em> and <em>better</em> apply when something bad is getting better or being made