mitigate
verb
Simple meaning
To make something bad less serious.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
mituhgaytSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈmɪtəɡeɪt
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
verb
Make less severe or harsh
transitiveof problems or flaws
To reduce, lessen, or decrease and thereby to make less severe or easier to bear.
intransitiveproscribed
To give force or effect toward preventing a problem.
transitive
To downplay.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- C1 · Advanced
- Frequency
- Moderately Common
- Typical Use
- Neutral / general English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: Make less severe or harsh
Used this way, mitigate is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Moderate
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- No strong connotation
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Inflected forms
Grammatical variations of the same word.
Made less severe or intense.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
A circumstance that does not exonerate a person but which reduces the penalty associated with the offense.
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.