SYNONYMS AND RELATED EXPRESSIONS
mitigate
verb
To reduce the severity, seriousness, or harmful effect of something.
Local English device voice, when available. This is not a recorded dictionary pronunciation.
Make less severe
Closest synonyms
Related words and expressions
These extend or explain the idea and may require a different sentence structure.
Usage distinction
Return to topMitigate reduces severity or harm; it does not necessarily eliminate the cause or excuse responsibility.
RELATED FORMS, ONE FEATURED ENTRY
The mitigate family
These forms are closely related, but their grammar and use are not identical. Expand a form to compare its meaning and examples.
mitigationnoun
The reduction of the severity, extent, or harmful effect of something.
Reduction in severity
Closest synonyms
Related expressions
The planning report included measures for the mitigation of construction noise.
A drastic change to a fictional parcel service replaces daily collection with a single collection each month, leaving customers with a sharply reduced service. An exacerbation of the existing backlog follows when the depot also stops sorting parcels for an entire week. The manager's mitigation plan aims to reduce the effects by arranging temporary storage and restoring part of the collection schedule.
CHECK THE MEANING IN CONTEXT
See mitigate in use
A backup venue could mitigate the disruption caused by rain.
The club took steps to mitigate the disruption by clarifying the rules and offering a new question period.
Compare an alternative with the original word in each passage. Shared meanings do not make every pair interchangeable.
Synonym reference scope and sources
The groups distinguish the senses selected for this study entry. Closest synonyms and broader related expressions have separate labels. The listed sources support lexical selection; not every phrase is a direct quotation from a source.
How the synonym reference was prepared / WordNet 3.0 license