mitigation

American  

[mit-i-gay-shuhn] / ˌmɪt ɪˈgeɪ ʃən /

noun

• mitigations
  plural

1. the act of mitigating, or lessening the force or intensity of something unpleasant, as wrath, pain, grief, or extreme circumstances.

   Social support is the most important factor in the mitigation of stress among adolescents.

2. the act of making a condition or consequence less severe.

   the mitigation of a punishment.

3. the act of alleviating harmful or dangerous conditions or of reducing the harm inflicted by them.

   radon mitigation;

   mitigation of climate change;

   aircraft noise mitigation.

4. the process of becoming milder, gentler, or less severe.

5. a mitigating circumstance, event, or consequence.

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• nonmitigation
  noun

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• mitigations
  plural

Etymology

Origin of mitigation

First recorded in 1350–1400; from Anglo-French, Middle French mitigacion, from Latin mitigātiōn-, stem of mitigātiō, equivalent to mitigāt(us), past participle of mitigāre “to calm, soften, soothe” + -iō -ion ( def. ); see mitigate ( def. )

Explanation

Mitigation is the act of lessening or easing the harshness of a punishment, a fine, or someone's pain. In the legal world, a lawyer might ask a judge for mitigation of a particularly harsh sentence. Mitigation is the noun form of the verb mitigate, which means "to lessen in severity." After a natural disaster, the government might offer mitigation, in the form of aid, to ease people’s suffering. If someone tries to make an offense seem less serious by offering an excuse, that's also mitigation. If you miss your curfew, you might state in mitigation that you came home late because you were helping an old lady cross the street.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

mitigation mitigations

A further hearing will take place on 5 October when the prosecutor will set out the facts of the case and the defence will present mitigation, a court official confirmed.

From BBC ● Sep. 22, 2026

Chief Facilities Executive Krisztina Tokes could offer no such assurance, advising the board that state earthquake mitigation funds are underfunded and oversubscribed.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 16, 2026

It is investment in resilience, adaptation and mitigation essential for growth to continue at all.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 11, 2026

Nevertheless, advocates focused on reforming the state’s utilities sought this year to seize the moment to enact tough regulations, including forcing data centers to pay for transmission upgrades and wildfire mitigation efforts.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 29, 2026

“The laws of this state permit the hearing of evidence to ascertain the degree of responsibility. And, also, the law permits the offering of evidence toward the mitigation of punishment.”

From "Native Son" by Richard Wright

Google also shared that it was deploying misalignment mitigations to monitor Argon’s chain of thought and shut down actions when necessary.

From MarketWatch ● Sep. 30, 2026

The current demand bump is likely due to some demand destruction and demand mitigations in place with the rising prices at the pump, Cinquegrana said.

From MarketWatch ● May 5, 2026

In the real world, Firefox had other security mitigations that would have stopped the attack, which would have made more work for real-world hackers.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 14, 2026

The health board says it has put mitigations, including bespoke cleaning regimes and other infection control measures, in place to reduce risks.

From BBC ● Mar. 8, 2026

It seemed impossible to him that only a day or so ago he should have been accusing her in his heart of disloyalty, and searching for excuses and mitigations....

From Marriage by H. G. (Herbert George) Wells