amendment
[C] Countable
pl: amendments
This term carries a heavy weight of authority and formality. It is not a casual correction or a mistake fix; it is a deliberate, official modification intended to evolve a document without scrapping the entire original structure. It implies a process of review and approval, often within a legislative or bureaucratic framework. In a legal sense, an amendment acts as a layer added on top of an existing foundation. It preserves the history of the document while updating its function, creating a permanent record of how a rule or agreement has shifted over time to meet new societal or professional needs.
Used when referring to a specific, individual change in a document, such as the First Amendment to the US Constitution.