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

When AI begins to wobble, investors have tended to shift money into other corners of the market, helping mitigate losses in the S&P 500.

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 6, 2026

The European Union insists that, yes, its law known as the AI Act is powerful enough since it forces companies to assess and mitigate risks, under threat of massive fines or even bans.

From Barron's ● Oct. 6, 2026

“These types of threats are not going away, so we need to find a way to mitigate it,” said Joseph Lestrange, a former division chief at Homeland Security Investigations.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 1, 2026

Prince William was visiting the area to learn about how communities have been affected by recent flooding and what measures were being taken by local authorities and other agencies to mitigate future incidents.

From BBC ● Oct. 1, 2026

Because for a private citizen to become a prince presupposes virtue or Fortune, it appears that either the one or the other of these two things should partially mitigate many of the problems.

From "The Prince" by Niccolò Machiavelli

"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

While China relies on oil imports, "it mitigates this exposure through diversified suppliers, ties with Iran, substantial strategic reserves and continued reliance on coal", she said.

From Barron's ● Apr. 14, 2026

But he added that the products Arm designs for that part of the market come with “dramatically smaller royalties,” which mitigates the potential impact on Arm’s business.

From MarketWatch ● Feb. 4, 2026

The deep-lying reason is the fact that the humanization of Evil into Devil mitigates Evil and improves the world.

From Creative Intelligence Essays in the Pragmatic Attitude by Boyd H. Bode

However, it is possible some of this could be mitigated using new technologies.

From BBC ● Sep. 5, 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

That could have mitigated the Dodgers’ huge advantage in slugging.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 2, 2026

“Rising component costs are mitigated given Apple’s bargaining power against consumers and the supply chain.”

From MarketWatch ● Jul. 14, 2026

What was their great battle over mitigated speech and teamwork all about, after all?

From "Outliers" by Malcolm Gladwell

Boulder wants compensation for wildfires, the costs for mitigating pest infestations, reduced farm output and lower employee productivity, among other things.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 2, 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

She added there had been "intensive" discussions over the weekend about mitigating jobs losses.

From BBC ● Sep. 6, 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

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