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# mitigate

verb (mitigate, mitigates, mitigated, mitigating)

«mitigate» in the English dictionary: everyday — its meanings, how the lessons use it, and examples, each with its tree on Mova.

## Everyday

1. (formal) To make something bad less serious, less painful or less harmful. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/M/mitigate/#m1)
2. (law) To make a wrong action seem less bad, so a punishment may be lighter: «mitigating circumstances». [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/M/mitigate/#m2)

### In the lessons

Exam voice and news: «measures to mitigate climate change», «mitigate the risk of floods». In safety and science: sandbags mitigate flooding. In law and ethics lessons: «mitigating circumstances» are facts that make a person less to blame (for example, they were very young or tricked). Phrases: «mitigate the effects», «mitigate the damage», «mitigating factors».

### Examples

- Planting trees can help mitigate flooding. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/M/mitigate/#x1)
- The new crossing will mitigate the danger to children. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/M/mitigate/#x2)
- Saying sorry quickly may mitigate your punishment. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/M/mitigate/#x3)
- Engineers built walls to mitigate the damage from storms. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/M/mitigate/#x4)
- The judge said there were mitigating circumstances. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/M/mitigate/#x5)
- We shut the windows to mitigate the noise. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/M/mitigate/#x6)
- Wearing sun cream mitigates the risk of sunburn. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/M/mitigate/#x7)

### Note

Regular verb: mitigated. Formal; everyday words: «reduce», «ease», «soften», «lessen». Common error: «militate against» is a different phrase (to work against) – do not write «mitigate against». Mitigate means to make less bad, not to remove completely.

## On Mova

- [Trees and pragmatics of «mitigate» in the school dictionary](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/M/mitigate/): every meaning and example parsed by Mova, with its dependency tree and frames.
- [«mitigate» in the school dictionary](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/dictionaries/school/w/mitigate.html) on Mova free.