verb
-
to pacify; soothe
-
to lessen the harshness or severity of
Other Word Forms
- mollifiable adjective
- mollification noun
- mollifier noun
- mollifyingly adverb
- remollify verb (used with object)
- unmollifiable adjective
- unmollifying adjective
Etymology
Origin of mollify
First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English, from Middle French mollifier, from Late Latin mollificāre, equivalent to Latin molli(s) “soft” + -ficāre -fy
Explanation
To mollify is to calm someone down, soothe their anger or anxiety. A parent might mollify a crying baby with a pacifier. A store manager might offer a full refund to mollify an outraged customer. Mollify comes from the Latin mollificare, "to make soft," and that's still at the heart of the word. When you mollify someone, you smooth things over, even if you're maybe still a little mad: "I was angry that the guy took my seat, but I was mollified when he offered me one closer to the band." Unlike the sharp sounds of antagonize, there are only soft sounds in this word that means to make someone feel soft and cuddly. Although dryer sheets might soften your clothes, they don't mollify them (unless your clothes were really mad at you before).
Vocabulary lists containing mollify
Of Mice and Men
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Power Suffix: -fy
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To Kill a Mockingbird
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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.
Official L.A., anxious to mollify angry and frightened Angelenos, dropped the hammer on a plant near downtown L.A.
From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 26, 2026
Maybe someone down at the petrol station, to which William keeps sneaking to mollify his insatiable chocolate addiction and where local people do unspeakable things with the gas pumps.
From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 12, 2026
X in June sought to mollify the EU by adding a disclaimer to the checkmark.
From Barron's • Nov. 27, 2025
The first of these groups includes Bannon and may be the trickiest to mollify.
From BBC • Feb. 8, 2025
Pocock wrote back with a long, detailed technical explanation of his design and proposed a few minor modifications that he thought might mollify Ebright without compromising the integrity of the shell.
From "The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics" by Daniel James Brown
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
