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attenuate

American  
[uh-ten-yoo-eyt, uh-ten-yoo-it, -eyt] / əˈtɛn juˌeɪt, əˈtɛn ju ɪt, -ˌeɪt /

verb (used with object)

attenuates, present (3rd person singular) attenuated, past participle, past attenuating present participle
  1. to weaken or reduce in force, intensity, effect, quantity, or value.

    to attenuate desire.

  2. to make thin; make slender or fine.

  3. Bacteriology, Immunology. to render less virulent, as a strain of pathogenic virus or bacterium.

  4. Electronics. to decrease the amplitude of (an electronic signal).

    A splitter will attenuate your output.


verb (used without object)

attenuates, present (3rd person singular) attenuated, past participle, past attenuating present participle
  1. to become thin, fine, or weak; lessen.

    Over the years, my anger at my family attenuated and I was able to acknowledge the strengths they had given me.

adjective

  1. weakened; diminishing.

  2. Botany. tapering gradually to a narrow extremity.

attenuate British  

verb

  1. to weaken or become weak; reduce in size, strength, density, or value

  2. to make or become thin or fine; extend

  3. (tr) to make (a pathogenic bacterium, virus, etc) less virulent, as by culture in special media or exposure to heat

"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

adjective

  1. diluted, weakened, slender, or reduced

  2. botany tapering gradually to a point

"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

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

Inflected Forms

Participles

Conjugated Forms

Present

Past

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."

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Vocabulary lists containing attenuate

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:

Genesis brand engineers spend some coin to attenuate engine and mechanical noise, vibration and harshness.

From The Wall Street Journal Jun. 6, 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

"Seismic waves attenuate rapidly for distances away from the source, and therefore have limited resolution when they reach the depths of interest."

From Science Daily May 8, 2024

So it wouldn't be surprising if the relationship between natural harbors and democracy begins to attenuate toward the end of the 20th century.

From Salon Jul. 22, 2023

Further to attenuate the value of my admission, another consideration arises, this time prompted not by speculative criticism, but by reverence itself.

From The Religious Sentiment Its Source and Aim: A Contribution to the Science and Philosophy of Religion by Brinton, Daniel Garrison

"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

Jane’s quest attenuates as the novel grinds on, months and years falling around her like bodies in a plague year.

From Los Angeles Times Mar. 30, 2021

This creates a soft halo that attenuates the contrast between the light source and the surrounding darkness.

From Salon Mar. 13, 2017

Sloth is the weight of matter, in itself inert, within us, and this sloth, while it professes to preserve us by economizing our forces, in reality attenuates us and reduces us to nothing.

From Tragic Sense Of Life by Flitch, J. E. Crawford (John Ernest Crawford)

They will test the theocracy to see whether the war has attenuated its strength.

From The Wall Street Journal Mar. 19, 2026

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

Anolik is less charitable about Babitz’s subsequent work, which she considers to be attenuated and strained, lacking the buzzy exuberance of “Slow Days, Fast Company.”

From Los Angeles Times Nov. 12, 2024

The live attenuated virus strains were originally developed as a vaccine by Professor Ooi Eng Eong's group from Duke-NUS' Emerging Infectious Diseases Research Programme.

From Science Daily Mar. 8, 2024

Their faces, bathed in the attenuated December light from the tall windows, appeared quiet and even faintly reverent.

From "Snow Falling on Cedars: A Novel" by David Guterson

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

With this setup, the experts have succeeded in significantly reducing heat transfer through sensors and electronics, and in attenuating interference signals and noise with several innovations.

From Science Daily Jan. 17, 2024

“Our data confirm that the benefits of vaccination include attenuating disease severity in breakthrough cases,” Barchuk says.

From Science Magazine Aug. 26, 2021

But some studies are being launched—testing the diabetes drug metformin, for example—with the goal of attenuating hallmark indicators of aging.

From Scientific American May 25, 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

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