An amendment is essentially a correction. It comes in many varieties, up to and including the process of altering something through either parliamentary or constitutional procedure. In the United States, the word is often used specifically of a change to the U.S. Constitution. A constitutional amendment may be proposed by Congress with a two-thirds majority vote in both the Senate and the House of Representatives or through a constitutional convention with majority votes in two-thirds of state legislatures. Once it is ratified by Congress, it must be approved by three-fourths (i.e., 38 of 50) of the states.
Recent Examples on the Web On the corporate side, subsidies and loan guarantees should be abolished, even if that requires aspirations toward a constitutional amendment. — Clyde Wayne Crews Jr., Forbes, 6 Sep. 2024 Those reforms entailed imposing term limits for justices, requiring them to comply with binding ethics rules and ratifying a constitutional amendment that would limit presidential immunity. — Kathryn Watson, CBS News, 15 Aug. 2024 In the wake of the uniquely awful Trump decision, President Joe Biden proposed a constitutional amendment to eradicate Trump, along with separate proposals for term limits and a binding code of ethics for the justices. — Ian Millhiser, Vox, 15 Aug. 2024 This second vote occurred after Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas filed a lawsuit and the state Supreme Court ordered a new vote on the constitutional amendment. — Rayna Reid Rayford, Essence, 14 Aug. 2024 See all Example Sentences for amendment
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'amendment.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
13th century, in the meaning defined at sense 2
Time Traveler The first known use of amendment was in the 13th century
The Words of the Week - 2/26/2021
Some of the words that defined the week ending February 26, 2021