Synonyms

mitigate

American

[mit-i-gayt] / ˈmɪt ɪˌgeɪt /

verb (used with object)

to lessen in force or intensity, as wrath, grief, harshness, or pain; moderate.
to make less severe.

to mitigate a punishment.
to reduce the risk or impact of harmful conditions or events.

To mitigate flood damage, new building regulations are being developed.
to make (a person, one's state of mind, disposition, etc.) milder or more gentle; mollify; appease.
Environmental Science. to restore or recreate (a habitat) in order to make up for losses due to development or agriculture.

No one has tried anything on this scale before to mitigate the grasslands bird habitat.

verb (used without object)

to become milder; lessen in severity.

mitigate British

/ ˈmɪtɪˌɡeɪt /

verb

to make or become less severe or harsh; moderate

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Usage

Mitigate is sometimes wrongly used where militate is meant: his behaviour militates (not mitigates ) against his chances of promotion

Commonly Confused

Mitigate, whose central meaning is “to lessen” or “to make less severe,” is sometimes confused with militate, which means “to have effect or influence; weigh on.” This mix-up often occurs in the use of the phrase mitigate against, as follows: This criticism in no way mitigates (read militates ) against your going ahead with your research. Although this use of mitigate occasionally occurs in edited writing, it is rare and is widely regarded as an error.

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

Inflected Forms

Participles

Conjugated Forms

Present

Past

Future

Etymology

Origin of mitigate

First recorded in 1375–1425; late Middle English mitigaten, from Latin mītigātus (past participle of mītigāre “to calm, soften, soothe”), equivalent to mīt(is) “mild, soft, gentle” + -ig- (combining form of agere “to do, cause to do, make”) + -ātus verb suffix; see -ate ¹

Explanation

Choose the verb mitigate when something lessens the unpleasantness of a situation. You can mitigate your parents' anger by telling them you were late to dinner because you were helping your elderly neighbor. The somewhat formal verb mitigate comes from the Latin roots mītis, "soft," and agere, "to do/act," which add up to "to soften." It is often used with words that indicate an outcome or something harmful. When you buy car insurance, you are trying to mitigate the risks involved with driving. Sunscreen is used to mitigate the effects of the sun on your skin.

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Vocabulary lists containing mitigate

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Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

See Examples For:

mitigate mitigates mitigated mitigating

For high-balance accounts, steady withdrawals starting early can also mitigate some of the tax impact of large RMDs.

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 29, 2026

Eight months into the conflict, storing oil closer to top customers in Asia is becoming a key strategy to mitigate supply risks, speeding up deliveries while bolstering host countries’ energy security.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 29, 2026

But Basanta Raj Adhikari, director of the Centre for Disaster Studies at Tribuvan University, thinks it will not be possible to mitigate such threats completely.

From BBC ● Oct. 28, 2026

According to Camenzind, "This is a limitation, but further improvements to device design could help mitigate this source of error."

From Science Daily ● Oct. 26, 2026

Management actions at and in the immediate vicinity of airports do little to mitigate the risk of off-airport strikes during departure and approach.

From "The Sense of Style" by Steven Pinker

And economists have shown that continued immigration mitigates inflation and extends the solvency of Social Security and Medicare funds.

From Salon ● Oct. 30, 2026

“The company expects inventory levels to remain elevated as it mitigates this dynamic supply chain environment,” the company said.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 5, 2026

"The external intervention we need is from government in the shape of grassroots music festival tax relief. Festivals eat and drink risk, but tax relief mitigates some of that risk."

From BBC ● Jul. 12, 2026

Moore said the facility has remained at 45 degrees, which mitigates the risk of it becoming a biohazard due to food spoilage.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 21, 2026

That, nature’s first, last lesson to mankind; The selfish heart deserves the pain it feels; 300 More generous sorrow, while it sinks, exalts; And conscious virtue mitigates the pang.

From Young's Night Thoughts With Life, Critical Dissertation and Explanatory Notes by Edward Young

There are reasons why so many people are struggling right now—reasons that cannot fully be avoided or mitigated.

From Slate ● Nov. 1, 2026

The inspector general found that the Fed’s Board of Governors failed to take actions that would have mitigated significant cost overruns.

From Barron's ● Sep. 30, 2026

"You don't want to stifle innovation," Thune said on Monday, "but I think you also want to make sure that the more advanced threats can be mitigated."

From BBC ● Sep. 15, 2026

U.S. stocks gained as a rosy growth projection from Nvidia mitigated fears about the sustainability of the artificial-intelligence boom.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 27, 2026

Time mitigated his mad proposal, but it aggravated his feelings of frustration.

From "One Hundred Years of Solitude" by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

There have been several mitigating factors, and Alexander-Arnold is not the only player to have struggled to find his best form during a turbulent period for Real.

From BBC ● Nov. 1, 2026

He said the traditional approach to mitigating insider risk relies on verifying someone’s identity and then trusting that what they do afterward is legitimate, which can miss cases where the threat develops over time.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 15, 2026

The so-called Games Agreement laid out a “shared set of values” and called for an operating budget that would be “prudent, realistic, and designed to protect taxpayers by mitigating financial risk.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 28, 2026

It depends on where you live, however, as there are many mitigating factors when it comes to filing for Chapter 7.

From MarketWatch ● Sep. 16, 2026

Further, I want to prevail upon this Court to consider this boy’s plea of guilty as evidence mitigating his punishment.

From "Native Son" by Richard Wright

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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023