When and where: My friend was showing me a game on her iPad that you can create your own Jurassic Park. I adore the movie so I couldn't resist checking it out. In order to advance to different levels, different characters give you tasks to accomplish in the park. In this particular task, Hammond says that he doesn't have the money to buy this dinosaur he wants, so to ameliorate the problem... blah blah blah do this and earn coins.
Level of familiarity: I could guess from the context clues that ameliorate means to fix or make better, but I couldn't define the word. It seemed like a word I must have heard somewhere before.
What it means: Merriam Webster online dictionary defines ameliorate as a verb that means to make better. But not "better". They use the word "tolerable". To me, this means that ameliorate means to make only marginally better, not perfect or the best it could be.
Reflective commentary: This word makes me think about directions and the words we use in them. I totally could have moved on and not cared what this word meant. Honestly, if I wasn't working on this blog, I doubt I would have bothered to look it up. I could easily accomplish the task without needing to know the word. In fact, I could have easily understood the underlying purpose of the task without knowing the word. It was unnecessary for the task completion.
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