mitigate
Americanverb (used with object)
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mitigates,
present (3rd person singular)
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mitigated,
past participle, past
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mitigating
present participle
-
to lessen in force or intensity, as wrath, grief, harshness, or pain; moderate.
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to make less severe.
to mitigate a punishment.
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to reduce the risk or impact of harmful conditions or events.
To mitigate flood damage, new building regulations are being developed.
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to make (a person, one's state of mind, disposition, etc.) milder or more gentle; mollify; appease.
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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)
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mitigates,
present (3rd person singular)
-
mitigated,
past participle, past
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mitigating
present participle
verb
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
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mitigationnoun
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mitigatornoun
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overmitigateverb
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mitigableadjective
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mitigativeadjective
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unmitigableadjective
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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mitigatesimple
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mitigatessimple
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have mitigatedperfect
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has mitigatedperfect
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am mitigatingprogressive
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are mitigatingprogressive
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is mitigatingprogressive
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have been mitigatingperfect progressive
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has been mitigatingperfect progressive
Past
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mitigatedsimple
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had mitigatedperfect
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was mitigatingprogressive
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were mitigatingprogressive
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had been mitigatingperfect progressive
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.
Vocabulary lists containing mitigate
Grade 10, List 6
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This Week in Words: August 25 - 31, 2018
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This Week in Words: October 6 - 12, 2018
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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:
Sometimes buybacks merely mitigate the dilution caused by a company’s issuance of stock to give to its employees as part of their pay packages.
From MarketWatch ● Nov. 4, 2026
The German group said the recovery in its pharma business allowed it to mitigate market pressures at its agricultural and consumer-health divisions.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 3, 2026
The work includes excavation to retrieve a soil sample and debris removal, as well as installing sandbags to mitigate further damage from strong waves and coastal erosion.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 3, 2026
In a response to the coroner's report, external, the Treasury "accepted the findings in the report in full" and said it had taken immediate action to mitigate the concerns raised.
From BBC ● Oct. 30, 2026
He spent a lot of time imagining what other people were thinking and feeling that might mitigate their behavior.
From "Just Mercy" by Bryan Stevenson
And economists have shown that continued immigration mitigates inflation and extends the solvency of Social Security and Medicare funds.
From Salon ● Oct. 30, 2026
The advantage of this location "is that you can use the original tunnel's roof as your little tunnel's roof. Also, it mitigates risk of flooding," said Dix.
From BBC ● Sep. 4, 2026
“The company expects inventory levels to remain elevated as it mitigates this dynamic supply chain environment,” the company said.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 5, 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
It blinds men—they curse it, while they grope along: a desperate business, indeed, thus to run by guess where positive knowledge of the way merely mitigates the peril.
From Dr. Grenfell's Parish The Deep Sea Fisherman by Norman Duncan
SpaceX has voluntarily mitigated the brightness of its Starlink satellites, Tyson said.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 2, 2026
There are reasons why so many people are struggling right now—reasons that cannot fully be avoided or mitigated.
From Slate ● Nov. 1, 2026
Bloating is often temporary and other gastric side effects may be mitigated by starting the supplement at a low dose and increasing daily consumption incrementally.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 19, 2026
The inspector general found that the Fed’s Board of Governors failed to take actions that would have mitigated significant cost overruns.
From Barron's ● Sep. 30, 2026
The silence that followed was partly mitigated by the drone of the filtration pump.
From "Atonement" by Ian McEwan
Officials ended up mitigating the issue by pushing PSG’s match against Olympique Lyonnais to Monday night.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 24, 2026
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
"I want to be absolutely confident that we have all of the facts of the case and that we can take mitigating measures to ensure that there is no repetition of this."
From BBC ● Sep. 21, 2026
“I don’t believe anything you tell me,” Nately replied, with a bashful mitigating smile.
From "Catch-22" by Joseph Heller
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
