“ameliorate” vs “alleviate”

Solution 1:

The American Heritage Dictionary, 4th Edition, defines ameliorate as: to make better; improve. Under their entry for improve, there is this note about synonyms:

improve, better, help, ameliorate: These verbs mean to advance to a more desirable, valuable, or excellent state. Improve and better, the most general terms, are often interchangeable: You can improve (or better) your mind through study; I got a haircut to improve (or better) my appearance. Help usually implies limited relief or change: Gargling helps a sore throat. To ameliorate is to improve circumstances that demand change: Volunteers were able to ameliorate conditions in the refugee camp.

Alleviate is defined by The American Heritage Dictionary as: to make (pain, for example) more bearable. Under their entry for relieve, there is this note about synonyms:

relieve, allay, alleviate, assuage, lighten, mitigate, palliate: These verbs mean to make something less severe or more bearable. To relieve is to make more endurable something causing discomfort or distress: "that misery which he strives in vain to relieve" ... Alleviate connotes temporary lessening of distress without removal of its cause: "No arguments shall be wanting on my part that can alleviate so severe a misfortune. (Jane Austen)...

In medical writing, ameliorate is used when describing a patient's condition. Alleviate is used when lessening pain. So you could say, for example, "The patient's condition was ameliorated when we administered pain medicine to alleviate her headache." That is, you improved the situation by relieving the pain.

Solution 2:

They aren't really that similar at all.

Alleviate is a word to use to say that something will fix or nearly fix (or at least somewhat help fix) a problem.

Ameliorate is a word to use to say that something won't really fix the problem, but will make the impact of it less bad. Sort of cushioning the blow.

Solution 3:

You’re right that these are quite similar. Per the OED, alleviate is

To lighten, or render more tolerable, or endurable; to relieve, mitigate

While in (non-)contrast, ameliorate is

To make better; to better, improve.

There is also an intransitive sense for ameliorate, where it means “to grow better” rather than “to make better”.

I may be wrong, but my instinct of contemporary usage is that one is more apt to employ alleviate when the problem is completely resolved, and ameliorate when it is improved but not necessarily removed altogether.

Since the two words can in fact, or at least in theory, be used interchangeable, it is probably best not to assume anything, and to spell out just what you mean if there is any question.

Here are some OED citations for ameliorate:

• 1813 Sir H. Davy Agric. Chem. 203 ― A sterile soil··may be ameliorated by the application of quick lime.
• 1849 Macaulay Hist. Eng. I. 279 ― In every human being there is a wish to ameliorate his own condition.
• 1882 Geikie in Macm. Mag. Mar. 365/2 ― [Man]··would find his way back as the climate ameliorated.

And here are some for alleviate:

• 1712 Steele Spect. No. 450 ⁋3, ― I··found means to alleviate, and at last conquer my Affliction.
• 1871 Napheys Prevent. Dis. ɪɪɪ. ii. 619 ― To alleviate the sufferings of the invalid.
• 1876 Mozley Univ. Serm. ᴠ. 120 ― Hope alleviates the sorrow of that home.

If you are looking for a fine distinction, there is something “uplifting” about alleviate that does not quite occur in ameliorate, which is simply to improve.