alteration

UK/ɒl.tə(ɹ)ˈeɪ.ʃən/US/ɔl.tɚˈeɪ.ʃən/

nounB2+Occasional — familiar, but not everyday · #9,493 of 15,258leans written

Other forms: alterations

An alteration is a change of fit or detail made to something already finished. Minor alterations, alterations to the dress, closed for alterations.

In tailoring it is a whole trade, and taking in a seam is the commonest job there is. It implies the thing survives the change: a building closed for alterations is being adjusted rather than rebuilt, which is what makes the word so useful on a sign.

Definitions of alteration

1nounalterationA change of fit or detail made to something already finished.B2+
“The dress needed a small alteration because the sleeves were too long.”

alteration is a change.

Where it comes from

Medieval Latin alteratio comes from alter, other — to make otherwise.

Medieval Latin
alterātiō
Old French
alteracion
English, today
alteration

From Old French alteracion (French altération), from Medieval Latin alterātiō. Morphologically alter + ation.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practise this word

alteration in the wild

Contrast this with chord extensions: Whereas chord extension generally involves adding notes that are logically implied, chord alteration involves changing some of the typical notes.
Altered chord
In jazz harmony, chromatic alteration is either the addition of notes not in the scale or expansion of a progression by adding extra non-diatonic chords.
Altered chord
Body modification (or body alteration) is the deliberate altering of the human anatomy or human physical appearance.
Body modification
Photograph manipulation or photograph alteration is the modification of an otherwise genuine photograph.
Photograph manipulation
In others, it is an alteration of the war flag.
Civil flag

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

From Project Gutenberg, public domain. These sentences are from real books, shown to illustrate the word at work.

Related words

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