Adjacent Words

Reformation definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

REF'ORMATION, n.
1. The act of reforming; correction or amendment of life, manners, or of any thing vicious or corrupt; as the reformation of manners; reformation of the age; reformation of abuses.
Satire lashes vice into reformation.
2. By way of eminence, the change of religion from the corruptions of popery to its primitive purity, begun by Luther, A.D. 1517.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: improvement (or an intended improvement) in the existing form or condition of institutions or practices etc.; intended to make a striking change for the better in social or political or religious affairs
2: a religious movement of the 16th century that began as an attempt to reform the Roman Catholic Church and resulted in the creation of Protestant churches [syn: Reformation, Protestant Reformation]
3: rescuing from error and returning to a rightful course; "the reclamation of delinquent children" [syn: reclamation, reformation]

Merriam Webster's

noun Date: 15th century 1. the act of reforming ; the state of being reformed 2. capitalized a 16th century religious movement marked ultimately by rejection or modification of some Roman Catholic doctrine and practice and establishment of the Protestant churches • reformational adjective

Oxford Reference Dictionary

n. the act of reforming or process of being reformed, esp. a radical change for the better in political or religious or social affairs. Phrases and idioms: the Reformation hist. a 16th-c. movement for the reform of abuses in the Roman Church ending in the establishment of the Reformed and Protestant Churches. Derivatives: Reformational adj. Etymology: ME f. OF reformation or L reformatio (as REFORM)

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Reformation Ref`or*ma"tion (r?f`?r*m?"sh?n), n. [F. r['e]formation, L. reformatio.] 1. The act of reforming, or the state of being reformed; change from worse to better; correction or amendment of life, manners, or of anything vicious or corrupt; as, the reformation of manners; reformation of the age; reformation of abuses. Satire lashes vice into reformation. --Dryden.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

1. The reformation of something is the act or process of changing and improving it. He devoted his energies to the reformation of science. 2. The Reformation is the movement to reform the Catholic Church in the sixteenth century, which led to the Protestant church being set up. ...a famous statue of the Virgin which was destroyed during the Reformation. N-PROPER: the N

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

ref-or-ma'-shun: The word is found only in Heb 9:10, being the translation of diorthosis, in its only occurrence. This Greek word means etymologically "making straight," and was used of restoring to the normally straight condition that which is crooked or bent. In this passage it means the rectification of conditions, setting things to rights, and is a description of the Messianic time.

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

n. Reform, amendment, correction, rectification, act of reforming.

Moby Thesaurus

Fabianism, abject apology, about-face, accommodation, adaptation, adjustment, adoption, alteration, amelioration, amendment, apology, apostasy, betterment, break, change, change of allegiance, change of heart, change of mind, changeableness, circumcision, constructive change, continuity, conversion, deathbed repentance, defection, degeneration, degenerative change, deterioration, deviation, difference, discontinuity, divergence, diversification, diversion, diversity, extremism, fitting, flip-flop, gradual change, gradualism, heartfelt apology, improvement, instauration, mea culpa, melioration, meliorism, mitigation, modification, modulation, new birth, new life, overthrow, penance, penitence, progressivism, qualification, radical change, radical reform, radicalism, re-creation, reactivation, realignment, rebirth, reclamation, reconstitution, reconversion, recrudescence, redeemedness, redemption, redesign, redintegration, reenactment, reestablishment, reform, reformism, regeneration, rehabilitation, reinstatement, reinstation, reinstitution, reinvestiture, reinvestment, remaking, renascence, renewal, repentance, replacement, reshaping, restitution, restoration, restructuring, reversal, reversion, revisionism, revival, revivification, revolution, saeta, salvation, second birth, shift, spiritual purification, sudden change, switch, total change, transformation, transition, turn, turnabout, upheaval, utopianism, variation, variety, violent change, wearing a hairshirt, worsening