Words / A / General

ameliorate

verb/əˈmiːliəreɪt/

C1CEFR level
60/100Rarity: rare
FormalRegister

To make a bad or unsatisfactory situation better.

The new subsidies did little to ameliorate the plight of the poorest households.

Similar: improve, alleviate, mitigate

Topic: Cambridge C1 Advanced in General English

Rarity runs from 0 (a word everyone knows) to 100 (almost never seen outside specialist or literary writing). Level is the word's real difficulty on the CEFR scale, from A1 to C2.

Get words like ameliorate on your lock screen, a few a day, with review that makes them stick.

Download on the App Store Lexfall puts a new word on your home and lock screen through widgets, so you learn without opening an app. Free to download. After a free trial, a subscription unlocks every field. Built for iPhone, iOS 15.1 or later.
QR code that opens Lexfall on the App Store
On a computer?Scan with your iPhone camera.

More general words: Cambridge C1 Advanced