Meanings
mitigate1
present singular third person mitigates · participle present mitigating · participle past mitigated · past mitigated
- transitiveTo reduce, lessen, or decrease and thereby to make less severe or easier to bear.
Then they tell us that vaccination will mitigate the disease that it will make it milder.
1896, Walter Hadwen, The Case Against Vaccination5 more examples
Measures are pursuing to prevent or mitigate the usual consequences of such outrages, and with the hope of their succeeding at least to avert general hostility.
1795, George Washington, Seventh State of the Union AddressBut in yielding to it the retaliation has been mitigated as much as possible, both in its extent and in its character...
1813, James Madison, Fifth State of the Union AddressThen I discovered the brilliance of the landscape around was mitigated by blue spectacles.
1900 December – 1901 August, H[erbert] G[eorge] Wells, chapter 7, in The First Men in the Moon, London: George Newnes, […], published 1901, →OCLCThe plague had not been kind to him, yet had left him this small furry thing to mitigate his sorrow; and when one is very young, one can find great relief in the lively antics of a black kitten.
1920, H. P. Lovecraft, The Cats of UltharThis highly-aggressive approach had results, but briefly caused a major uproar in parts of the United States, which was mitigated by the Webster–Ashburton Treaty in 1842, which formalised the U.S. Navy's contribution to the antislavery efforts.
2018 December 1, Drachinifel, 8:56 from the start, in Anti-Slavery Patrols - The West Africa Squadron, archived from the original on 29 Nov 2024Synonyms: alleviate, check, diminish, ease, lighten, mollify, pacify, palliate
- transitiveTo downplay.
mitigate2
comparative more mitigate · superlative most mitigate
- obsoleteMitigated, alleviated.
Synonyms & antonyms
verbTo reduce, lessen, or decrease and thereby to make less severe or easier to bear.
verbTo give force or effect toward preventing a problem.
antonym(s) of “to reduce or lessen”
More synonyms by meaning
verblessen or to try to lessen the seriousness or extent of
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Origin
mitigate · verb
- Proto-Indo-European*meh₁y-“mild, soft”
- Latinmītigātus
- Middle Englishmitigaten“to relieve pain, soothe; (swelling) to abate; (hemorrhoids) to relieve; (the mind) to placate, appease; to end, check; to stop, cease”
- Englishmitigate
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”).
More words from Middle English, Latin, Proto-Indo-European
Full word history & related roots →mitigate · adjective
- Middle Englishmitigat(e)“mitigated”
- Englishmitigate
From Middle English mitigat(e) (“mitigated”, also used as the past participle of mitigaten and of mitigate in Early Modern English), see -ate (adjective-forming suffix) and Etymology 1 for more.
More words from Middle English
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Arabic خَفَّفَ
- خَفَّفَ (ḵaffafa)to reduce, lessen, or decrease
Bulgarian смекчавам, облекчавам
- смекчавам (smekčavam)to reduce, lessen, or decrease
- облекчавам (oblekčavam)to reduce, lessen, or decrease
Catalan mitigar
- mitigarto reduce, lessen, or decrease
Chinese Mandarin 缓解, 减少
- 缓解 (huǎnjiě)to reduce, lessen, or decrease
- 减少 (jiǎnshǎo)to reduce, lessen, or decrease
Czech zmírňovat, zmirňovat
- zmírňovatto reduce, lessen, or decrease
- zmirňovatto reduce, lessen, or decrease
- zmírnitto reduce, lessen, or decrease
- snižovatto reduce, lessen, or decrease
- snížitto reduce, lessen, or decrease
Danish mitigere, dæmpe
- mitigereto reduce, lessen, or decrease
- dæmpeto reduce, lessen, or decrease
- lindreto reduce, lessen, or decrease
Dutch mitigeren, verzachten
- mitigerento reduce, lessen, or decrease
- verzachtento reduce, lessen, or decrease
Esperanto mildigi
- mildigito reduce, lessen, or decrease
Finnish lieventää, helpottaa
- lieventääto reduce, lessen, or decrease
- helpottaato reduce, lessen, or decrease
French réduire, atténuer
- réduireto reduce, lessen, or decrease
- atténuerto reduce, lessen, or decrease
- mitigerto reduce, lessen, or decrease
German mildern, abschwächen
- mildernto reduce, lessen, or decrease
- abschwächento reduce, lessen, or decrease
- abmildernto reduce, lessen, or decrease
- lindernto reduce, lessen, or decrease
Hungarian csökkent
- csökkentto reduce, lessen, or decrease
Italian mitigare, limitare
- mitigareto reduce, lessen, or decrease
- limitareto reduce, lessen, or decrease
Latin mītigō
- mītigōto reduce, lessen, or decrease
Māori whakamauru
- whakamauruto reduce, lessen, or decrease
Norwegian Bokmål lindre, formilde
- lindreto reduce, lessen, or decrease
- formildeto reduce, lessen, or decrease
- avbøteto reduce, lessen, or decrease
Polish łagodzić, złagodzić
- łagodzićto reduce, lessen, or decrease
- złagodzićto reduce, lessen, or decrease
- minimalizowaćto reduce, lessen, or decrease
- zminimalizowaćto reduce, lessen, or decrease
- zmniejszaćto reduce, lessen, or decrease
- zmniejszyćto reduce, lessen, or decrease
- ograniczaćto reduce, lessen, or decrease
- ograniczyćto reduce, lessen, or decrease
- uspokajaćto reduce, lessen, or decrease
- uspokoićto reduce, lessen, or decrease
- uśmierzaćto reduce, lessen, or decrease
- uśmierzyćto reduce, lessen, or decrease
Portuguese mitigar, atenuar
- mitigarto reduce, lessen, or decrease
- atenuarto reduce, lessen, or decrease
- pacificarto reduce, lessen, or decrease
Romanian atenua
- atenuato reduce, lessen, or decrease
Russian смягча́ть, уменьша́ть
- смягча́ть (smjaxčátʹ)to reduce, lessen, or decrease
- уменьша́ть (umenʹšátʹ)to reduce, lessen, or decrease
- умеря́ть (umerjátʹ)to reduce, lessen, or decrease
- сде́рживать (sdérživatʹ)to reduce, lessen, or decrease
- облегча́ть (oblexčátʹ)to reduce, lessen, or decrease
Spanish mitigar
- mitigarto reduce, lessen, or decrease
Swedish lindra, mildra
- lindrato reduce, lessen, or decrease
- mildrato reduce, lessen, or decrease
Turkish azaltmak, dindirmek
- azaltmakto reduce, lessen, or decrease
- dindirmekto reduce, lessen, or decrease
- hafifletmekto reduce, lessen, or decrease
- yumuşatmakto reduce, lessen, or decrease
- yatıştırmakto reduce, lessen, or decrease
- tadil etmekto reduce, lessen, or decrease
Ukrainian пом'якшувати, полегшувати
- пом'якшувати (pomʺjakšuvaty)to reduce, lessen, or decrease
- полегшувати (polehšuvaty)to reduce, lessen, or decrease
- зменшувати (zmenšuvaty)to reduce, lessen, or decrease
Vietnamese giảm nhẹ, giảm thiểu
- giảm nhẹto reduce, lessen, or decrease
- giảm thiểuto reduce, lessen, or decrease
Cite this entry
mitigate. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/mitigate
“mitigate.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/mitigate. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “mitigate,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/mitigate.
Source: mitigate on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.