attenuation

American  

[uh-ten-yoo-ey-shuhn] / əˌtɛn yuˈeɪ ʃən /

noun

1. the act of attenuating or the state of being attenuated.

2. the process by which a virus, bacterium, etc., changes under laboratory conditions to become harmless or less virulent.

3. Physics. a decrease in a property, as energy, per unit area of a wave or a beam of particles, occurring as the distance from the source increases as a result of absorption, scattering, spreading in three dimensions, etc.

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attenuation British  

/ əˌtɛnjʊˈeɪʃən /

noun

1. the act of attenuating or the state of being attenuated

2. the loss of energy suffered by radiation as it passes through matter, esp as a result of absorption or scattering

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Other Word Forms

• subattenuation noun

Etymology

Origin of attenuation

1585–95; (< Middle French ) < Latin attenuātiōn- (stem of attenuātiō ). See attenuate, -ion

Explanation

Attenuation means a weakening or reduction. If you have a really intense crush on someone, but closer contact reveals that she smells funny in a bad way, you'll probably experience an attenuation of your romantic sensation. The noun attenuation comes from the Latin verb meaning "make thin," but it's not just the bodies of hopeful models and ballerinas that undergo attenuation. Any instance of something becoming weaker or smaller could be an attenuation, like the attenuation of a radio signal as you drive out of town, the attenuation of your attention during a boring lecture, or the attenuation of your bank balance after a sudden, impulsive trip to Hawaii.

Example Sentences

During the spring, he said Amazon hadn’t yet “seen any attenuation of demand,” and he touted Amazon’s vast network of merchants who he said could sell different items at a wide variety of prices.

From MarketWatch • Jan. 20, 2026

I never understood if the effect was due to my mood or to a general attenuation of the chemical processes inside my skull.

From Slate • Oct. 28, 2023

This difference in water content between the two layers constituting the LAB can explain the sharp velocity drops as well as the near constant attenuation observed over a wide frequency range in the asthenosphere.

From Science Daily • Sep. 27, 2023

So the idea that there would be some attenuation of the correlation of Europeans and forms of democratic political institutions fits with our commonsense view of of the world.

From Salon • Jul. 22, 2023

Universality alone would lead to dissipation, attenuation, and disappearance.

From The Cradle of the Christ A Study in Primitive Christianity by Frothingham, Octavius Brooks