attenuate
Americanverb (used with object)
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attenuates,
present (3rd person singular)
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attenuated,
past participle, past
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attenuating
present participle
-
to weaken or reduce in force, intensity, effect, quantity, or value.
to attenuate desire.
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to make thin; make slender or fine.
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Bacteriology, Immunology. to render less virulent, as a strain of pathogenic virus or bacterium.
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Electronics. to decrease the amplitude of (an electronic signal).
A splitter will attenuate your output.
verb (used without object)
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attenuates,
present (3rd person singular)
-
attenuated,
past participle, past
-
attenuating
present participle
adjective
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weakened; diminishing.
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Botany. tapering gradually to a narrow extremity.
verb
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to weaken or become weak; reduce in size, strength, density, or value
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to make or become thin or fine; extend
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(tr) to make (a pathogenic bacterium, virus, etc) less virulent, as by culture in special media or exposure to heat
adjective
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diluted, weakened, slender, or reduced
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botany tapering gradually to a point
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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attenuatesimple
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attenuatessimple
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have attenuatedperfect
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has attenuatedperfect
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am attenuatingprogressive
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are attenuatingprogressive
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is attenuatingprogressive
-
have been attenuatingperfect progressive
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has been attenuatingperfect progressive
Past
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attenuatedsimple
-
had attenuatedperfect
-
was attenuatingprogressive
-
were attenuatingprogressive
-
had been attenuatingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of attenuate
First recorded in 1520–30; from Latin attenuātus (past participle of attenuāre “to make thin, reduce”); see at-, tenuis, -ate 1
Explanation
Attenuate is a verb that means to make or become weaker. The effects of aging may be attenuated by exercise — or by drinking from the fountain of youth. The versatile word attenuate denotes a weakening in amount, intensity, or value. As a verb, attenuate is usually transitive, meaning it needs an object to be complete, such as in the sentence: "This tanning process tends to attenuate the deer hide, making it softer." The word can be intransitive in past tense, as in "The rain attenuated, ending the storm." And it can even be used as an adjective to describe something weakened: "Even an attenuated solution will remove the stain."
Vocabulary lists containing attenuate
30 GRE Words Beginning with "A"
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Hidden Figures
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A Streetcar Named Desire
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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:
It’s in the way the steering hydraulics softly attenuate kickback at full lock.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 25, 2026
He recognized that if the United States were to have any meaningful relationship with Latin America, we needed to attenuate our colonialism, so he pushed through the ratification of the Panama Canal treaties.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 29, 2024
The researchers were able to show that zooplankton species that are tolerant to oxygen deficiency consume sinking particles and thus attenuate the export fluxes of carbon to the deep sea.
From Science Daily ● Dec. 8, 2023
"What else can we be doing to attenuate that risk? Well, to me, it's clear from this research that formulas that have corn syrup solids confer additional risk."
From Salon ● Sep. 30, 2022
"No, no," she cried, raising her head, thankful, at last, that here was some small point on which she could attenuate his suspicions.
From The Truants by A. E. W. (Alfred Edward Woodley) Mason
"Sound attenuates with distance, so at one metre away, the amplitude is around 108 decibels."
From BBC ● Feb. 26, 2024
Based on this, they hypothesized that DOP activation by KNT-127 suppresses glutamatergic transmission and attenuates PL-BLA-mediated anxiety-like behavior.
From Science Daily ● Feb. 22, 2024
Daniel’s production honors this to a degree, but the ensemble casting attenuates the effect.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 21, 2023
This creates a soft halo that attenuates the contrast between the light source and the surrounding darkness.
From Salon ● Mar. 13, 2017
I had an opportunity of observing that the purity of the air in no degree attenuates the quantity of false notes lodged in the throats of certain individuals.
From Up in the Clouds Balloon Voyages by R. M. (Robert Michael) Ballantyne
They will test the theocracy to see whether the war has attenuated its strength.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 19, 2026
And then Michael is such a craftsman that every part of everything is studied and controlled and carefully attenuated.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 26, 2025
It’s way too attenuated to fit into the language of the statute, because the tariffs don’t actually “deal with” this threat of fentanyl.
From Slate ● May 29, 2025
The team had also found in their previous work, that eating high-fat foods attenuated cerebral oxygenation in the pre-frontal cortex, during stress.
From Science Daily ● Nov. 18, 2024
Something attenuated, a nervous caution, suggested itself in all his movements.
From "Snow Falling on Cedars: A Novel" by David Guterson
What he finds is a conflict pitting human progress, and its attenuating battle for power and domination, against nature.
From Salon ● Jul. 22, 2026
Far from attacking the root causes of global-warming, activists said, recourse to la clim' was merely attenuating the effects of global-warming.
From BBC ● Jun. 24, 2026
Mangroves offer coastal protection by preventing coastal erosion and attenuating waves moving to the coast.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 2, 2023
“Our data confirm that the benefits of vaccination include attenuating disease severity in breakthrough cases,” Barchuk says.
From Science Magazine ● Aug. 26, 2021
This suggested that phosphorus would be a better carrier of therapeutic radiation than radio-sodium, since the latter distributes itself all through the body as salt, attenuating its effect.
From "Big Science" by Michael Hiltzik
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
