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 ]

  3. the linguistic process in which over a period of time a word grows more positive in connotation or more elevated in meaning

The dictionary is based on the WordNet Electronic Lexical Database.
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