Other forms: reforms, reformed, reforming
A reform is a change made to improve a system. Electoral reform, land reform, a package of reforms.
It implies improving something that exists rather than replacing it, which is why reform and revolution are contrasted. Reforms come in packages and are usually named by their subject: welfare reform, prison reform. As a verb it means both to change a system and to change your own behaviour: he has reformed. Note reformer; the Reformation; and that reform and re-form with a hyphen mean quite different things.
1nounreformA change made to improve a system.
“The government promised a major reform of the tax system.”
2verbbetterTo change a system for the better, or to change your behaviour.
“After prison, he reformed and now helps young people stay out of trouble.”
reform is an improving change.
Latin reformare means to form again — re- plus formare, from forma, a shape. Reforming something is giving it a new shape rather than a new substance, which is exactly the political distinction.
French
réforme
Latin
reformo
Old French
reformer
Middle English
reformen
English, today
reform
From Middle English reformen, from Old French reformer, from Latin reformo. As a noun since 1660s, from French réforme.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA