Modification

How to spell modification

12 letters · 5 syllables

How to pronounce modification

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does modification mean?

1. nounA change or adjustment made to something to improve it or adapt it to a new purpose.

Modification in a sentence

• The engineer proposed a small modification to the brake design.

• The contract requires written approval for any modification of the terms.

Where does modification come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word comes from the Latin modificatio, a noun meaning 'a measuring' or 'a limiting', which was built on the verb modificare, 'to limit, regulate, or shape'. That verb in turn joined modus, meaning 'measure, manner, or limit', with the verb facere, meaning 'to make' or 'to do', so the literal idea was 'to make to measure'. English took the word in through Old French in the fifteenth century, at first with the sense of regulating or restraining something. Over time the meaning broadened to the modern idea of altering or adjusting something to make it more suitable. The same modus root sits inside familiar relatives such as 'mode', 'model', and 'modest', and the buried facere is what gives the word its tricky middle: it is spelled with that -fic- (not -fy-) before the -ation ending.

How the word is built

• mod (measure/manner, from Latin modus)
• -ific- (making, from facere 'to make')
• -ation (noun of action)