What does "alteration" mean?

The act of altering or making different.

What is a synonym for "alteration"?

Common synonyms include: change, revision, about face, about-face, accident, accommodation.

Pronounced //ɔl.tɚˈeɪ.ʃən//.

//ɔl.tɚˈeɪ.ʃən// noun

noun ·Moderate ·College level

Noun

1
The act of altering or making different. countable, uncountable
"…alteration, though it be from worse to better, hath in it inconveniences…"
2
the act of making something different (as e.g. the size of a garment) wordnet
3
The act of altering or making different.; A minor adjustment to clothing, such as hemming or shortening, to make it fit better. countable, uncountable
4
the act of revising or altering (involving reconsideration and modification) wordnet
5
The state of being altered; a change made in the form or nature of a thing; a changed condition. countable, uncountable
"…and I saw by the alteration in your face that a train of thought had been started."

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6
an event that occurs when something passes from one state or phase to another wordnet

"The plan is incapable of alteration."

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

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.