modification
- 01 B2 Upper Intermediate
a small change made to something to improve it or make it more suitable.
the act of making a minor alteration or adjustment to something while keeping its essential character intact.
Simple“The engineers made a slight modification to the engine to help it use less fuel.”
In context“The architect suggested a minor modification to the original floor plan to allow for more natural light in the central hallway.”
Synonyms - 02 C1 Advanced
the way a word's meaning is changed or limited by another word.
the structural relationship where one word or phrase limits or qualifies the meaning of another.
Simple“In the phrase 'red apple', the word 'red' is a modification of 'apple'.”
In context“The student struggled with noun modification, often placing the adjective after the noun instead of before it.”
UsageIn linguistics, this refers to the relationship between a head and its dependents.
Synonyms - 03 C1 Advanced
a change in a living thing caused by its environment that is not passed on to its babies.
a non-heritable change in an organism's phenotype resulting from environmental influence.
Simple“The plant's smaller leaves were a modification caused by the dry soil, not its genes.”
In context“Biologists distinguish between genetic mutations and environmental modifications that do not alter the underlying DNA sequence of the species.”
Synonyms
Usage require modification
“The FAA gave airlines until July 2028 to complete the modifications, and the NTSB report found the required changes had not yet been made to the Ryanair plane.”
“In one of the few modifications made since Wagner’s time, a tiny air-con unit has been fitted.”
From Middle English modificatioune, from Middle French modification and its etymon Latin modificātiō (“a measuring”), from modificāre (“to limit, control, modify”); see modify. By surface analysis, modify + -ication.
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.