There are many ways to make things better. You can ease a pain without curing it, fix a mistake completely, add a finishing touch to something already good, or bring something tired back to life. Each of these ten verbs names one of those ways, and test passages love to ask which one fits.
Key idea
Make a bad thing less bad: ameliorate, alleviate, mitigate. Fix it: remedy, rectify. Make a good thing better: enhance, refine, bolster (support). Bring back the life: rejuvenate (make young again), revive (make live again).
The ten words
Common mistake
mitigate (lessen) is often confused with militate (to work against: "militate against"). ameliorate improves a bad situation; it is not used for making a good thing better.
| what you do | words | example |
|---|---|---|
| make a bad thing less bad | ameliorate, alleviate, mitigate | ease the traffic, the pain, the flood |
| fix what is wrong | remedy, rectify | correct a mistake |
| make a good thing better | enhance, refine | add the cherry; polish the draft |
| prop it up | bolster | support an argument or a mood |
| bring back the life | rejuvenate, revive | young again; alive again |
Ameliorate improves a bad situation; you would not “ameliorate” a lovely party. And mitigate (to lessen) is often mixed up with militate (to work against), which is almost always followed by against.