Modify

How to spell modify

6 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce modify

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does modify mean?

1. verbTo make partial changes to something, adjusting it without replacing it entirely.

Modify in a sentence

• The engineers had to modify the design after the safety review.

• You can modify the contract before both parties sign it.

Where does modify come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word comes from the Latin modificare, meaning 'to limit' or 'to measure off', which combined modus 'a measure, manner, or limit' with facere 'to make or do'. The literal sense was therefore 'to set a measure to' something, the idea of keeping a thing within bounds. English took it through Old French modifier during the late 1300s, and the sense gradually widened from 'to restrain or moderate' to the modern meaning of 'to change or adjust partly'. The same modus root sits inside familiar relatives such as 'mode', 'model', 'moderate', and 'modest', all of which carry that underlying notion of measure or manner. Because the -ify ending is spelled with a single f and a y rather than - ifie, the trap for writers is mainly in the inflected forms (modifies, modified), but the base word stays pleasingly regular.

How the word is built

• mod (from modus: measure, manner)
• -ify (to make, from facere: to make)