Word
moderate
Phoneticsmod·er·ate
/ˈmɑdɝˌeɪt/
Definitions
01average or middle
adj. neither very good nor very bad; middle in amount, intensity, or quality.
adj. average in amount, intensity, quality, or degree; avoiding extremes.
“The hotel offers rooms at a moderate price for travelers on a budget.”
“The doctor advised a program of moderate exercise, warning that sudden, intense physical exertion could strain the patient's heart.”
02political middle
adj. having political opinions that are not extreme.
adj. occupying an intermediate position between liberal and conservative ideologies.
“He holds moderate views on taxes and usually votes for the middle candidate.”
“Moderate voters often decide the outcome of national elections by shifting their support away from the more polarized party platforms.”
Synonyms
03to lead a discussion
v. to lead a formal discussion or meeting to make sure it stays fair.
v. to preside over a public forum, debate, or online community to ensure order and adherence to rules.
“A famous journalist was chosen to moderate the debate between the two leaders.”
“The platform uses a combination of human editors and automated tools to moderate user comments and remove offensive content.”
04to make less extreme
v. to make something less strong or less violent.
v. to lessen the intensity or extreme nature of something; to temper.
“The wind began to moderate as the storm moved further out to sea.”
“The central bank hoped that raising interest rates would moderate the rapid growth of the housing market.”
Formal
05nuclear physics
v. to slow down the speed of particles in a nuclear machine.
v. to reduce the speed of neutrons in a nuclear reactor using a specific substance to facilitate fission.
“Graphite is often used to moderate the reaction in certain types of power plants.”
“The heavy water serves to moderate the high-velocity neutrons, ensuring they are at the optimal thermal energy for a sustained chain reaction.”
Technical
06a centrist person
n. a person who has opinions that are in the middle rather than extreme.
n. an individual who holds intermediate or centrist views, especially in a political or religious context.
“As a moderate, she often finds herself disagreeing with both the far left and the far right.”
“The party leadership struggled to appeal to moderates without alienating the more radical members of their base.”
Synonyms
Real-World Examples
“He enjoyed moderate success with his paintings and greater acclaim for his novels (one of which – the fractured, sporadically fabulous G – won the 1972 Booker prize).” “Moderate wine drinkers had a 21% lower risk of cardiovascular death compared with people who rarely or never drank.” “Even with that, Mahamud said the peak of the outbreak would not be reached for six months under a “moderate” scenario and that the outbreak could last nine to 12 months.” Etymology
From Middle English moderat(e) (“moderate, temperate”), borrowed from Latin moderātus, perfect active participle of moderor (“to regulate, to restrain, to moderate”) (see -ate (adjective-forming suffix)), from moder-, modes-, a stem appearing also in modestus (“moderate, discreet, modest”), from modus (“a measure”); see mode and modest. Doublet of moderato. Displaced native Old English ġemetlīċ (“moderate”) and metegian (“to moderate”). Cognate with French modéré.
From a substantivization of the above adjective, see -ate (noun-forming suffix) and Etymology 1 for more.
From Middle English moderaten (“to restrain, curb; (law) modify”), from moderat(e) + -en (verb-forming suffix), borrowed from Latin moderātus, see -ate (verb-forming suffix) and Etymology 1 for more.
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
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englishreference.com/q/moderate