mitigate

CEFRC1

/ˈmɪt.ɪ.ɡeɪt/

verb · adjective

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

  1. 01

    verb

    To make something less harmful, serious, or painful.

  2. 02

    verb

    Extra detail

    To downplay.

Examples

  • Machine learning can be used to predict and mitigate natural disasters.

  • Reducing deforestation is one way to mitigate the impacts of climate change.

At a glance

Sits at C1 on the CEFR scale

Senses
5
Parts of speech
2
Citations
5
Synonyms
5

Deep Dive

verb

Extra meanings
  1. To give force or effect toward preventing a problem.

  2. To reduce, lessen, or decrease and thereby to make less severe or easier to bear.

adjective

Extra meaning
  1. Mitigated, alleviated.

More examples

In context
  • Friendly words will mitigate their fury.

  • We've mitigated against the chance of flooding.

  • But in yielding to it the retaliation has been mitigated as much as possible, both in its extent and in its character...

Quick test

Two questions on this entry. Nothing is scored.

Question 1 · Quick check

The city built a tall flood wall to blank the damage from the storm.

Practise this properly in the app, where the word comes back before you forget it.

Nearby

Origin

verb

From Middle English mitigaten (“to relieve pain, soothe; (swelling) to abate; (hemorrhoids) to relieve; (the mind) to placate, appease; to end, check; to stop, cease”), from mitigat(e) (“mitigated, alleviated, relived”, also used as the past participle of mitigaten) + -en (verb-forming suffix), borrowed from Latin mītigātus, the perfect passive participle of mītigō (“to make soft, ripe; to tame, pacify”), from mītis (“gentle, mild, ripe”) + -igō (“to do, make”), of uncertain origin, but perhaps from Proto-Indo-European *meh₁y- (“mild, soft”).