different between remedy vs improvement

English

Etymology

From Middle English remedie, from Old French *remedie, remede, from Latin remedium (“a remedy, cure”), from re- (“again”) + mederi (“to heal”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /???m?di/
• Hyphenation: rem?e?dy

Noun

remedy (plural remedies)

1. Something that corrects or counteracts.
2. (law) The legal means to recover a right or to prevent or obtain redress for a wrong.
3. A medicine, application, or treatment that relieves or cures a disease.
   • 1856: Gustave Flaubert, Madame Bovary, Part III Chapter X, translated by Eleanor Marx-Aveling

     He said to himself that no doubt they would save her; the doctors would discover some remedy surely. He remembered all the miraculous cures he had been told about. Then she appeared to him dead. She was there; before his eyes, lying on her back in the middle of the road. He reined up, and the hallucination disappeared.

4. The accepted tolerance or deviation in fineness or weight in the production of gold coins etc.

Synonyms

• (Scottish contexts): remeid

Derived terms

• home remedy
• remediless

Translations

Verb

remedy (third-person singular simple present remedies, present participle remedying, simple past and past participle remedied)

1. (transitive) To provide or serve as a remedy for.
   • 1748. David Hume. Enquiries concerning the human understanding and concerning the principles of moral. London: Oxford University Press, 1973. § 27.

     Nor is geometry, when taken into the assistance of natural philosophy, ever able to remedy this defect,

Synonyms

• redress
• help
• correct
• cure
• See also Thesaurus:repair

Translations

Related terms

• remediable
• remedial

Further reading

• remedy in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• remedy in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• remedy at OneLook Dictionary Search

English

Alternative forms

• emprovement (obsolete)

Etymology

From Anglo-Norman emprouwement; synchronically improve +? -ment.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?m?p?u?vm?nt/
• Hyphenation: im?prove?ment

Noun

improvement (countable and uncountable, plural improvements)

1. The act of improving; advancement or growth; a bettering
   • November 9, 1662, Robert South, Of the Creation of Man in the Image of God

     I look upon your city as […] the best place of improvement.

   • 1783, Hugh Blair, Lectures on Rhetoric and Belles Lettres

     Exercise is the chief source of improvement in all our faculties.
2. The act of making profitable use or application of anything, or the state of being profitably employed; practical application, for example of a doctrine, principle, or theory, stated in a discourse.
   • 1705, Samuel Clarke, Evidences of Natural and Revealed Religion

     good improvement of his reason.

   • 1681, John Tillotson, A sermon preached at the funeral of the Reverend Mr Thomas Gouge

     I shall make some improvement of this doctrine.

3. The state of being improved; betterment; advance
4. Something which is improved

   • The parts of Sinon, Camilla, and some few others, are improvements on the Greek poet.

5. Increase; growth; progress; advance.

   • Those vices which more particularly receive improvement by prosperity.

6. (in the plural) Valuable additions or betterments, for example buildings, clearings, drains, fences, etc., on premises.
7. (Patent Laws): A useful addition to, or modification of, a machine, manufacture, or composition.

Synonyms

• improval, amelioration

Antonyms

• worsening
• deterioration
• disimprovement

Hyponyms

• self-improvement

Derived terms

• disimprovement

See also

• uplift

Translations

References

improvement in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.

Italian

Etymology

Borrowed from English improvement.

Noun

improvement m (invariable)

1. (rare) improvement

   Synonyms: miglioramento, perfezionamento