modification

Noun

1. The act of assessing and prescribing a payment, penalty, price, valuation, etc.
   • Wherein his highnes commandement is, that a graue, wiſe, ⁊ ſage man, ſhalbe appointed pꝛeſident, who may haue yͤ ouerſight of theſe boũds, ⁊ be anſwerable therefoꝛe to the biſhop, his coũſell ⁊ ſynode, ⁊ he to be...
   • Mekle Kindeass 2 b. 1 f. and £3 12s 1d . . . . and whatever augmentation . . be ye lords commissioners . . . . for modificaton of stipends and plantation of kirks . . . . - 1633, “No. 64, 1633.—Paper, well preserved,...
   • When the decree of modification is pronounced, the Teind Court, at the same time, remits to the junior Lord Ordinary to prepare a scheme of locality; i. e. an allocation of the modified stipend on the several heritors...
2. The form of existence belonging to a particular object, entity etc.; a mode of being.
   • Pleasure is the business of woman's life, according to the present modification of society […] - 1791 (date written), Mary Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman: With Strictures on Political and Moral...
3. The change undergone by a word when used in a construction.
4. The result of modifying something; a new or changed form.
5. The act of making a change to something while keeping its essential character intact; an alteration or adjustment.
   • behavior modification officer
   • Jim's modification to the radio's tuning resulted in clearer sound.
6. A change to an organism as a result of its environment that is not transmissable to offspring.
   • Due to his sunbathing, Jim's body experienced modifications: he got a tan.
7. A change to a word when it is borrowed by another language.
   • The Chinese word kòutóu had a modification made to become the English kowtow.