ameliorate vs alter

ameliorate and alter both are verbs.

Word	Noun	Adjective	Verb	Adverb
ameliorate	No	No	Yes	No
alter	No	No	Yes	No

As verbs, alter is a hypernym of ameliorate; that is, alter is a word with a broader meaning than ameliorate:

Other hypernyms of ameliorate include change, modify.

ameliorate (verb)	alter (verb)
get better	remove the ovaries of
to make better	become different in some particular way, without permanently losing one's or its former characteristics or essence
	cause to change; make different; cause a transformation
	insert words into texts, often falsifying it thereby
	make an alteration to