alteration
nounUK /ɒl.tə(ɹ)ˈeɪ.ʃən/ · US /ɔl.tɚˈeɪ.ʃən/
Etymology From Old French alteracion (French altération), from Medieval Latin alterātiō. Morphologically alter + -ation.
1
The act of altering or making different.
- …alteration, though it be from worse to better, hath in it inconveniences…1594, Richard Hooker, Of the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity:
2
A minor adjustment to clothing, such as hemming or shortening, to make it fit better.
3
The state of being altered; a change made in the form or nature of a thing; a changed condition.
- The doctors don't see any alteration in the patient's condition.
- …and I saw by the alteration in your face that a train of thought had been started.1892, Arthur Conan Doyle, “The Resident Patient”, in The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes:
- Derived terms
- alterationist, microalteration, realteration, unalteration