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Showing results for attenuated. Search instead for Extenuated.
Synonyms

attenuated

American  
[uh-ten-yoo-ey-tid] / əˈtɛn yuˌeɪ tɪd /

adjective

  1. weakened.

    My father had a somewhat attenuated relationship with his own family, as his childhood was quite traumatic.

  2. thin; slender or fine.

    Images of the conjoined twins’ brains reveal an attenuated line stretching between the two organs, called a thalamic bridge.

  3. Bacteriology, Immunology. (of a strain of disease-causing virus or bacterium) rendered less virulent.

    The attenuated poliovirus in the Sabin vaccine replicates very efficiently in the gut, but less so in the nervous system.

  4. Electronics. (of an electronic signal) reduced in amplitude.

    Accuracy decreases in the case of reflected or attenuated signals—for example, inside buildings.

verb

  1. the simple past tense and past participle of attenuate.

Other Word Forms

  • subattenuated adjective
  • unattenuated adjective
  • unattenuatedly adverb

Etymology

Origin of attenuated

attenuate ( def. ) + -ed 2

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.