ameliorate AIBU?

[LightTheFlameThrower]

Is this really a standard word that most people know? (I thought it was a typo)

Anyone who's learnt Latin would know that "melior" means "better" , so the meaning of "ameliorate" would be easy to deduce if you didn't already know it. But not that many people do learn Latin nowadays. People would tend to say "improve" in preference to "ameliorate", so I suppose it isn't in particularly common usage. Arguably it's slightly more flowery and pompous than "improve" but there is also a subtle difference in meaning, or rather appropriateness in context.

Not common in my circles but I know what it means.

It is the 10,303rd most common word in the English language. The average English native speaker knows about 20,000 words with university-educated people knowing around 40,000 words.

So yes, going by that, most people would know it.

Source 1: datayze.com/word-analyzer?word=ameliorate

Source 2: www.bellenglish.com/blog/how-many-words-do-you-know/

Never heard this word.

Not going to attempt to use as as I'm
Not sure how to pronounce it!

I might use it occasionally but certainly wouldn’t hear it on a daily or even weekly basis, and probably not anywhere other than my workplace.

Woah! Word lists and rankings.. I could be here all night

@malmi for the win.

“Anyone who has learnt latin”..

This phrase I think might be proving my point.

I know what it means but I did Latin at school. DS hadn't heard it.

I don't think it's very common but it's certainly a word I know. It's not exactly something you hear every day regardless of whatever people on here say

Favourite usage was when Haile Sellasie sent coffee to the UK during the flooding of the 1950s "to alleviate and ameliorate the suffering" of the British people

I know it but I can't remember the definition 🙄 I think it means to make friendly overtones to someone? Or pacify?

It depends on how much and what you read I think. The majority of Oxbridge graduates I’ve met are pretty well rounded and would definitely know this word. I know it because I’m interested in language and read a lot.

Using interesting words makes reading more enjoyable. Anyway, good to learn new words, no?

In did learn Latin but that's not why I know the word

I know the word because I memorised large sections of the OED cos I was fucking weird

@malmi, thank you and well done. There goes several more hours of displacement activity for me.

It's not an everyday word, but it isn't unusual. Most people would understand it and could use it correctly.

Laudable @malmi.
Or perhaps meritorious would be a better word .

I don't know Latin, but I do know what ameliorate means and have used it on occasion. I get the impression that you feel like someone is trying to put you down by using it in a message, in which case they are being unreasonable.

@OneTC

That's a good sort of weird though.

I know what it means but have never used it myself. I am not sure I have heard anyone I know say it either - just in books or on the TV

Maybe in certain businesses it is used frequently but not in my profession.

@LightTheFlameThrower

“Anyone who has learnt latin”..

This phrase I think might be proving my point.

If you're point-scoring about other people's spelling and grammar, please do reread your posts.

Muphrey's Law in action.

I know the word and understand it, but never hear it used in my SE neighbourhood or on TV/radio. Nor have I read it. I did study mathematical economics and it was not used in my textbooks at the time either. But there is a fashion with words too.

It sounds like an Americanism to me.

It's common in American English. I know it from the American shows I watch. Like matriculate and copacetic. They are known words in English, but not that common in England.

I wouldn't say common, but not obscure either.

I have heard of this word, but I studied French which has the verb améliorer so I guessed it had to have the same meaning. Though I've only ever used it in a handful of essays to try and hide the fact I had no clue what I was writing about

@forgetthehousework. I know (and use) all those words