Amend Meaning
/əˈmɛnd/Definition, CEFR level C1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
Listen pronunciation
Definition
verbTo make better; improve.
verbTo become better.
Sentence Examples
Some people want to amend the constitution.
The Diet is likely to amend this unpopular law.
CEFR Practice Quiz
The committee decided to ____ the constitution to include new rights.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The board decided to ____ the company's bylaws to include new rules.
Word Origin & History
From Middle English amenden, from Old French amender, from Latin ēmendō (“free from faults”), from ex (“from, out of”) + mendum (“fault”). Compare aphetic mend. Doublet of emend.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"Mud not the fountain that gave drink to thee;
Mar not the thing that cannot be amended."
— 1594, William Shakespeare, Lucrece (First Quarto), London: […] Richard Field, for Iohn Harrison, […], →OCLC:
"We shall cheer her sorrows, and amend her blood, by wedding her to a Norman."
— 1819 December 20 (indicated as 1820), Walter Scott, chapter XIII, in Ivanhoe; a Romance. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), Edinburgh: […] Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co. […], →OCLC:
"I was about to say that I had known the Celebrity from the time he wore kilts. But I see I will have to amend that, because he was not a celebrity then, nor, indeed, did he achieve fame until some time after I left New York for the West."
— 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter I, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC:
"The teacher sat at one end of the bench, with a meek little fellow by his side. When the others were disorderly, this young martyr received a rap; intended, probably, as a sample of what the rest might expect, if they didn't amend."
— 1847 March 30, Herman Melville, Omoo: A Narrative of Adventures in the South Seas; […], London: John Murray, […], →OCLC:
"But Paridell complaynd, that his late fight / With Britomart, so sore did him offend, / That ryde he could not, till his hurts he did amend."
— 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto X”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:
Explore More C1 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
The committee decided to ____ the constitution to include new rights.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The board decided to ____ the company's bylaws to include new rules.