attenuated

[ uh-ten-yoo-ey-tid ]

adjective

1. weakened:

   My father had a somewhat attenuated relationship with his own family, as his childhood was quite traumatic.

2. thin; slender or fine:

   Images of the conjoined twins’ brains reveal an attenuated line stretching between the two organs, called a thalamic bridge.

3. Bacteriology, Immunology. (of a strain of disease-causing virus or bacterium) rendered less virulent:

   The attenuated poliovirus in the Sabin vaccine replicates very efficiently in the gut, but less so in the nervous system.

4. Electronics. (of an electronic signal) reduced in amplitude:

   Accuracy decreases in the case of reflected or attenuated signals—for example, inside buildings.

verb

1. the simple past tense and past participle of attenuate ( def ).

Other Words From

• sub·at·ten·u·at·ed adjective
• un·at·ten·u·at·ed adjective
• un·at·ten·u·at·ed·ly adverb

Word History and Origins

Origin of attenuated¹

attenuate ( def ) + -ed ²

Example Sentences

However, it’s difficult to produce live-attenuated vaccines for more complicated pathogens, like bacteria and fungi.

From Popular-Science

It could become more deadly or it could attenuate and disappear, like the common cold.

From Nautilus

Live attenuated vaccines for measles and others have traditionally always been the most powerful and effective vaccines, also in their ability to protect you for the long term, which is a very important factor.

From Fortune

That means that it’s the virus which has been attenuated, which means the harmful properties have been removed, but it’s the whole virus.

From Fortune

An attenuated virus can still be dangerous for people with compromised immune systems.

From MIT Technology Review

We live in an era of shortened attention spans and attenuated half-lives for products, companies, and business models.

From The Daily Beast

His cropped leather jackets with their dolman sleeves were perfectly proportioned over his attenuated, back-slit skirts.

From The Daily Beast

Such of the sound waves is pass through the second nick will become attenuated in charging the chamber B.

From Project Gutenberg

Beneath those robes must have been a body as attenuated as a skeleton, as different as an insect's from man's.

From Project Gutenberg

Dr. Henry Brodrick was a tall, attenuated John, with a slightly, ever so slightly receding chin.

From Project Gutenberg

Sahib, what could my attenuated and wasted frame do against men who had suffered no misery like mine?

From Project Gutenberg

Harvey glanced rather contemptuously at the lean, attenuated arm that the other displayed, where he had rolled his cuffs back.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• extraordinary
• limited
• occasional
• scarce
• singular
• strange
• subtle
• uncommon
• unique
• unlikely
• unthinkable
• unusual