Other forms: modified, modifying, modifies
To modify is to change something partly to make it fit better. Modify the design, a modified version, modify your behaviour.
It means adjusting rather than replacing — a modified engine is still that engine. In grammar, a word that modifies another limits or describes it, which is what adjectives and adverbs do. Genetically modified is the standard term for organisms with altered DNA. Note modification; and that the Latin behind it means to set a limit, from modus, a measure.
1verbmodifyTo change something partly to make it fit better.
“They modified the car so that a driver in a wheelchair could use it.”
2verblimitTo limit or describe another word, in grammar.
“In 'a very tall man', the word 'very' modifies 'tall'.”
modify is a partial changing.
Also accepted in games: adjust, alter
Latin modificare is modus, a measure, plus facere, to make. Mode, moderate and modest come from the same measure, so modifying is fitting to a measure.
Proto-Indo-European
*dʰeh₁-
Latin
modificare — to limit, control, regulate, deponent
Middle French
modifier
Middle English
modifien
English, today
modify
Built from
From Middle English modifien, from Middle French modifier, from Latin modificare (“to limit, control, regulate, deponent”), from modificari (“to measure off, set bound to, moderate”), from modus (“measure”) + facere (“to make”); see mode.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA