palliation

American  

[pal-ee-ey-shuhn] / ˌpæl iˈeɪ ʃən /

noun

1. the act or process of relieving a patient’s suffering without curing the disease that is causing it.

   The Academy provides authoritative, evidence-based advice to support policy for the prevention, management, and palliation of cancer.

2. the act of mitigating or concealing the gravity of an offense by excuses, apologies, etc..

   No matter how events are viewed, there is no palliation for such crimes as the recent massacre of an entire family.

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Other Word Forms

• nonpalliation
  noun

Etymology

Origin of palliation

First recorded in 1400–50, for a previous sense; palliat(e) ( def. ) + -ion ( def. )

Explanation

Patients with terminal diseases usually need palliation. It's a kind of care that makes you feel better, even though it can't cure you. The noun palliation is used by doctors, nurses, or hospice workers who try to make their patients more comfortable, often because their illnesses are incurable. You can also use the word to talk about anything that eases someone's pain or anxiety, like a funny movie that distracts your grandmother from her worries. The Latin root word is palliat, or "cloaked," and palliation does in a sense cloak or mask a person's pain.

Example Sentences

Marcus’s father was offered hospice care, a form of palliation that is generally reserved for people with a life expectancy of six months or less, who are no longer pursuing “curative” treatments.

From The New Yorker • Mar. 18, 2019

Bunting himself looked down on annotations: “Notes are a confession of failure, not a palliation of it,” he wrote, introducing the few notes to his 1968 “Collected Poems.”

From The New Yorker • Aug. 2, 2016

More than four in 10 Americans now meet their end in hospice care, drawn by its promise of palliation and pain alleviation instead of extreme measures in their waning days.

From BusinessWeek • Jul. 22, 2011

What the replies would allege in self-justification or palliation was anybody's guess, and guess everybody did.

From Time Magazine Archive

For the leader of the sanguinary expedition, of which it is an account, there is much to be said in palliation of what may be called his crimes.

From The Child Wife by Reid, Mayne