mitigate
- 01 B2 Upper Intermediate
to make a bad situation, a problem, or a feeling less harmful or painful.
to lessen the severity, intensity, or impact of something unpleasant or harmful. Transitive — requires a direct object such as 'risk', 'damage', or 'effects'.
Simple“The government is taking steps to mitigate the effects of the rising cost of living.”
In context“Engineers implemented several structural reinforcements to mitigate the risk of collapse during a major seismic event.”
UsageCommonly used in professional and academic contexts regarding risk management or environmental impact.
Teacher's tipLearners often confuse 'mitigate' with 'militate'. Remind them that 'mitigate' means to soften a blow, while 'militate against' means to work against something.
PitfallThe new laws will mitigate against the problem. The new laws will mitigate the problem.In modern English, 'mitigate' is transitive and does not take the preposition 'against'. You may be thinking of 'militate against'.
Usage mitigate effect
“Pedro Sánchez's government hopes to bring the aid back again from September 1st to try and mitigate the problems of what happened in July and August.”
“Our work is part of HeatReady Schools , a program at Arizona State University that helps schools prepare for and mitigate the effects of heat.”
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”).
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.
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.