<p><strong>Noun</strong></p><ul><li>the act of changing to a better state or character, way of operating, lifestyle, etc.; the correction of abuses and bad habits or practices.</li><li>a change or alteration, as in form or nature.</li><li>an individual, species, or the like, resulting from a sudden departure from the parent type in one or more heritable characteristics, caused by a change in a gene or a chromosome.</li><li>(in Celtic languages) syntactically determined morphophonemic phenomena that affect initial sounds of words.</li></ul>