melioration

Estimated CEFR level: C2 — Proficiency

Estimated from word frequency; not an official CEFR classification.

Definition

noun the act of relieving ills and changing for the better
noun a condition superior to an earlier condition
noun the linguistic process in which over a period of time a word grows more positive in connotation or more elevated in meaning

From Latin meliōrātiō.

In despatches to Dayton, Seward asserted a twofold motive: "a sincere desire to co-operate with other progressive nations in the melioration of the rigours of maritime war," and "to remove every cause that any foreign Power could have for the recognition of the insurgents as a belligerent Power[259]." — Great Britain and the American Civil War, Ephraim Douglass Adams
Since every sort of tyranny has its vulnerable spot, since the despotism of Russia was tempered by assassination and of Japan by the effect of public suicide, so melioration of the tyranny of the medicine-man seems to have been found in rivalry amongst members of the craft itself. — Ten Thousand Miles with a Dog Sled: A Narrative of Winter Travel in Interior Alaska, Hudson Stuck
It was then determined to invade Scotland with a small force, to embody the Highland adherents of Argyle with the west country Presbyterians, and, marching into England, to raise the people as they moved along, and not rest till they had produced the desired melioration of the state. — Fifty-Two Stories For Girls, Unknown

amelioration, betterment

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