Learn English – an antonym of improved/improvement

antonymsmeaning

Consider these sentences:

  • "I improved my essay."

  • "I made an improvement to my essay."

  • "How much did you improve your essay?"

  • "What improvements did you make to your essay?"

What would I say, if I meant the opposite, like

  • "I changed my essay in a negative way."

  • "I made a change to my essay that negatively affected it."

  • "How much did you change your essay in a negative way?"

  • "How many negative changes did you make to your essay?"

Ideally, this would be a word or short phrase that would work well in other sentences too.


EDIT Additional example:

  • "Most improvements were due to me, but this one was made by John."

I'm looking for a verb and a noun. (They don't have to share the same stem, though that'd be great if they did.)

Best Answer

I think I like regress(ed|ion) or deteriorat(ed|ion).

Comparing the words to "worsen" [which I believe is barely English].

Usage:

My essay quality deteriorated as I made each edit.

How did your essay regress after making changes?

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regress: return to a former or less developed state.

deteriorate: become progressively worse.