modify

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.

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈmɒdɪfaɪ/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈmɑdɪfaɪ/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Hyphenation: mod‧i‧fy

modify (third-person singular simple present modifies, present participle modifying, simple past and past participle modified)

1. (transitive) To change part of.

   Her publisher advised her to modify a few parts of the book to make it easier to read.

2. (intransitive) To be or become modified.
3. (transitive) To set bounds to; to moderate.
4. (grammar, transitive) To qualify the meaning of.
   • 1977, Linda R. Waugh, A Semantic Analysis of Word Order: Position of the Adjective in French‎^[1]:

     There is inherently no ordering to the modification and no hierarchy of modification: that is, both adjectives modify the substantive and both apply equally to the substantive […]

   • 2016, Allen Ascher, The New Harbrace Guide: Genres for Composing‎^[2]:

     Adjectives modify nouns.

• adapt, alter, amend, revamp, rework

• modifier

• modification

• “modify”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
• “modify”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.

• domify