To modify something is to change it slightly, often to improve it or adapt it for a new purpose. The basic thing stays the same, but some features are adjusted.
From Old French “modifier,” from Latin “modificare,” meaning “to measure, limit, regulate,” from “modus” (measure) and a form of “facere” (to make). The sense shifted to adjusting or altering within limits.
Modify doesn’t mean destroy and rebuild; it means tweak within boundaries. That’s why we talk about modified cars, genetically modified crops, or even adjectives that ‘modify’ nouns—they all reshape something that’s already there.
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