- 1改善、提升（尤指社會與經濟地位的提升）；在法律／都市計畫脈絡中指「土地增值」，如 betterment tax 土地增值稅（台灣的土地增值稅制度雖不完全等同，但這是最貼近的對應詞）。注意：日常說「進步、改善」用 improvement，betterment 通常搭配「社會、人類、家庭境遇」這類大範圍的對象。
Betterment means making something better, or the state of having become better — but the word is not a general-purpose for 'improvement'. English keeps it for a narrow set of jobs. The commonest one is about a person's life as a whole: their money, their job, their standing in society. 'She went abroad for the betterment of her family' means she went so that her family could climb — earn more, live better, be respected more. It carries a slightly old-fashioned, serious, hopeful tone, the kind of word you find in speeches, mission statements, and writing about education and charity: 'the betterment of society', 'the betterment of humankind'. A second, quite separate use is legal and technical: in property law and in city planning, betterment is the rise in the value of a piece of land caused by something done to it or near it — a new road, a new station — and some governments charge a 'betterment tax' or 'betterment levy' to take back part of that windfall. That sense is not emotional at all; it is money. Note also what betterment is NOT used for. You would not say 'the betterment of my English' or 'the betterment of the weather' — for ordinary getting-better, English says improvement. Betterment wants a big object (society, humanity, the poor, one's condition in life) or a legal one (land value). It is also usually uncountable and usually followed by 'of'.
組成better（更好）+ -ment（把動作或狀態變成名詞的字尾，來自拉丁文 -mentum，經古法文進入英文）。所以字面就是「變好這件事」。
同家族的字
- improvementsame -ment suffix turning a verb into a noun: improve + -ment
- governmentsame -ment suffix: govern + -ment
- movementsame -ment suffix: move + -ment
- betterthe base word itself
原始詞典資料2 筆記錄
以下是外部詞典記錄的用法，摘錄並精簡格式，我們還沒有寫成教學內容。上面的說明才是我們自己寫的；有些用法可能上面已經講過了。
bettermentnoun/ˈbɛtəmənt/
- 1
An improvement or amelioration.
- When BR "back-checked" (BR's term) the financial results of steam replacement across 49 schemes, where DMUs had been substituted on the London Midland Region, only one was now profitable. BR thinking on such substitutions referred to "betterment", not profit or loss.
- 2
lawAn improvement to a property that adds to its value.
摘錄自 英文維基詞典 English Wiktionary，已精簡格式；依 CC BY-SA 4.0 授權使用，改動後的內容同樣以此授權提供。