ameliorate
Usage
What are other ways to say ameliorate?
The formal word ameliorate implies improving oppressive, unjust, or difficult conditions: to ameliorate working conditions. Improve usually implies remedying a lack or a felt need: to improve a process, oneself (as by gaining more knowledge). To better is to improve conditions which, though not bad, are unsatisfying: to better an attempt, oneself (as by gaining a higher salary).
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.
Exercising for two hours a day can partially ameliorate this issue, but it doesn’t prevent the problem entirely.
From Slate • Mar. 1, 2026
It suggests something more uncomfortable: that how protests are conducted determines whether they clarify and ameliorate injustice or obscure and perpetuate it.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jan. 16, 2026
The attempt to ameliorate market tension came quick.
From MarketWatch • Oct. 13, 2025
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
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
From Roget's 21st Century Thesaurus, Third Edition Copyright © 2013 by the Philip Lief Group.
