remediate
Americanverb
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to remove or reduce (pollutants, harmful chemicals, etc.).
Water damage restoration experts mop up and dry out homes, remediate mold, decontaminate items, and repair damaged structures.
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to clean (air, soil, water, etc.) by removing or reducing pollutants, harmful chemicals, etc..
It could cost up to $10 billion to remediate the remaining 6.2 million acres of land and waters damaged by the abandoned mines.
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to lessen the effect of; ameliorate.
The university's agreement to remediate harm shall be considered an act of compassion and empathy, not an admission of guilt.
Etymology
Origin of remediate
Back formation from remediation ( def. )
Explanation
To remediate is to correct or make right. If you accidentally ran over your neighbor's bike with your car, you could remediate the bad situation by paying for the bike's repair. When you remediate some kind of damage or mistake, you repair it or set it straight. To remediate often means to make up for a lack of something, like when schools remediate students who have struggled in certain classes by giving them extra instruction after school. The origin of remediate goes back to the Latin word remedium, a cure, remedy, or medicine.
Vocabulary lists containing remediate
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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:
Mold can pose health risks for some groups of people, and is expensive to remediate.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 15, 2026
In 2017, Gowan said the companies responsible "should be made to remediate".
From BBC ● Aug. 10, 2026
“Software vulnerabilities could be identified and exploited faster than firms were able to respond, leaving less time to detect, contain and remediate emerging threats.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 7, 2026
"We are looking at environmental disasters like oil spills, and identifying ways to remediate them in faster, greener and more sustainable ways," Oran said.
From Science Daily ● Jun. 5, 2026
Cordelia's agonised invocation and summons to the unpublished forces of nature, to be aidant and remediate to the good man's distress, is continually echoed by the poet, but with a broader application.
From The Philosophy of the Plays of Shakspere Unfolded by Delia Bacon
In April, The Times reported on a study by a team of university researchers and a local environmental health organization that found some remediated homes still had lead levels above California’s standard for residential properties.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 6, 2026
It added, “The rush to complete the project led to hasty and botched work that was not remediated before the project was finished and the fencing removed.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 31, 2026
According to the latest figures, there are 192 high-rise blocks in London in the process of being remediated at the moment - more than the 149 in the rest of the country combined.
From BBC ● Jul. 28, 2026
"It's an opportunity now for that land to be remediated for nature and the community."
From BBC ● Jun. 9, 2026
The student with severe prior knowledge deficits can usually be rapidly remediated by learning basic thinking skills first: for instance, the basic memorization techniques, note taking, outlining, and free association recall techniques.
From Sequential Problem Solving A Student Handbook with Checklists for Successful Critical Thinking by Fredric Lozo
“Preventing future Mythos level attacks and remediating identified vulnerabilities requires the participation of the broader security industry, domain expertise, and deterministic detection, which Anthropic can’t deliver,” the analysts say.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 8, 2026
US officials added that any future aid would be "dependent on the Somali Federal Government taking accountability" and remediating the matter.
From Barron's ● Jan. 8, 2026
This 2023 estimate from CalGEM is about three times higher than other parts of the state due to the complexity of sealing wells and remediating the surface in densely populated urban areas.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 11, 2025
Sunderland City Council said it was "remediating the site in preparation for future investment" and would soon be procuring a contractor, with building work expected to start "later in the year".
From BBC ● Apr. 5, 2025
Many communities, like SeaTac, are now remediating their school routes.
From Seattle Times ● Feb. 15, 2023
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
