Adjustment

How to spell adjustment

10 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce adjustment

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does adjustment mean?

1. nounA small change made to something to correct it, improve it, or make it fit better.

Adjustment in a sentence

• The mechanic made a quick adjustment to the brakes before the test drive.

• Moving to a new city required a real period of adjustment for the whole family.

Where does adjustment come from?

Language of origin: French

This word traces back through French to the Latin idea of bringing something to what is right or exact. The core sits in the Latin justus, meaning 'right', 'lawful', or 'exact', which is also the ancestor of 'just' and 'justice'. From this came Old French 'ajuster', meaning to make things fit or to put them in proper order, and English borrowed the verb 'adjust' in the early 1600s. The noun 'adjustment' was then formed in English by adding the Latin-derived suffix '-ment', which turns an action into the name of that action or its result. The doubled-d look of related forms can mislead writers, but adjustment keeps a single d: it is simply 'ad-' joined to 'just' plus '-ment', with no consonant doubling at all.

How the word is built

• ad- (to, toward)
• just (from Latin justus: right, exact)
• -ment (noun-forming suffix: act or result of)