modify

English

Etymology

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.

Pronunciation

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

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Hyphenation: mod‧i‧fy

Verb

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. (transitive, grammar) To qualify the meaning of.
   • 1977, Linda R. Waugh, A Semantic Analysis of Word Order: Position of the Adjective in French‎:

     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:

     Adjectives modify nouns.

Conjugation

Conjugation of modify

infinitive	(to) modify
	present tense	past tense
1st-person singular	modify	modified
2nd-person singular	modify, modifiest†	modified, modifiedst†
3rd-person singular	modifies, modifieth†	modified
plural	modify
subjunctive	modify	modified
imperative	modify	—
participles	modifying	modified

^† Archaic or obsolete.

Synonyms

• adapt, alter, amend, revamp, rework

Derived terms

• modifier

Related terms

• modification

Translations

to change part of

Aragonese: modificar Basque: aldatu (eu) Belarusian: мадыфікава́ць impf or pf (madyfikavácʹ) Breton: kemmañ (br) Bulgarian: изменям (bg) (izmenjam), променям (bg) (promenjam) Catalan: modificar (ca) Chinese: Mandarin: 修改 (zh) (xiūgǎi) Crimean Tatar: tüzetmek Danish: modificere (da) Dutch: modificeren (nl), veranderen (nl) Esperanto: modifi, aliigi Estonian: muutma Finnish: muokata (fi), muunnella (fi) French: modifier (fr) Galician: modificar (gl) German: ändern (de), abändern (de), modifizieren (de) Greek: μετατρέπω (el) (metatrépo) Guarani: moambue Hungarian: módosít (hu) Ido: modifikar (io) Indonesian: mengoprek, memodifikasi (id) Interlingua: modificar Italian: modificare (it) Korean: 수정하다 (ko) (sujeonghada) Ladin: muder Latin: adaptō Malagasy: manova (mg) Malay: mengubahshai, memodifikasi Maori: whakarerekē, whakakē Northern Sami: earáhuhttit, rievdadit Norwegian: modifisere Occitan: modificar (oc) Polish: modyfikować (pl), zmieniać (pl) Portuguese: modificar (pt) Romanian: modifica (ro) Russian: изменя́ть (ru) (izmenjátʹ), модифици́ровать (ru) (modificírovatʹ) Sardinian: Campidanese: modificai Spanish: modificar (es) Swahili: -sahihisha Swedish: modifiera (sv) Tagalog: magpasadya (tl), ipasadya (tl), magsaayos, isaayos, magpabago, ipabago, magmodipika, modipikahin Tibetan: སྒྱུར་བཅོས་གཏོང (sgyur bcos gtong), བཟོ་བཅོས་རྒྱག (bzo bcos rgyag) Turkish: modifiye etmek, değiştirmek (tr) Ukrainian: модифікува́ти impf or pf (modyfikuváty) Venetan: canbiare

to be or become modified

Bulgarian: изменям се (izmenjam se), променям се (promenjam se) Finnish: muokkautua Greek: μετατρέπομαι (el) (metatrépomai) Hungarian: módosul (hu) Indonesian: terkoprek Romanian: a (se) modifica (ro) Russian: изменя́ться (ru) (izmenjátʹsja), модифици́роваться (ru) (modificírovatʹsja) Turkish: değişmek (tr)

(grammar) to qualify another word or phrase

Bulgarian: please add this translation if you can Finnish: määrittää (fi) French: modifier (fr) Greek: προσδιορίζω (el) (prosdiorízo) Japanese: 修飾する (shūshoku suru) Korean: 수식하다 (susikada) Latin: adicio (la) (in the passive, + dative) Spanish: modificar (es)

References

• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “modify”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.
• “modify”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.

Anagrams

• domify