mitigate
verb
Joyce Carol OatesSam GuginoContract Journal James J. White and Robert S. Summers
Mitigate vs. Militate: Usage Guide
Mitigate is sometimes used as an intransitive (followed by against) where militate might be expected. Even though Faulkner used it
William Faulkner
it is usually considered a mistake.
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The meaning of mitigate is straightforward enough: to make something—such as a problem, symptom, or punishment—less harsh or severe. Sometimes, however, mitigate appears where the similar-looking militate is expected. That word, which is often followed by against, means “to have weight or effect,” as in “your unexcused absences are likely to militate against your getting a promotion.” The two words are not closely related (mitigate comes from the Latin verb mitigare, meaning “to soften,” whereas militate traces to militare, meaning “to engage in warfare”), but the confusion between the two has existed for long enough that some usage commentators have accepted “mitigate against” as an idiomatic alternative to militate. Even William Faulkner used mitigate in this way in his 1932 short story, Centaur in Brass, writing “It's as though there were some intangible and invisible social force that mitigates against him.” But unless you’re Faulkner, it’s best to keep mitigate and militate distinct.
Examples of mitigate in a Sentence
William Langewiesche, Atlantic, May 2005
… a genre novel whose inevitable cinematic ending doesn't mitigate the visceral and emotional power of what has come before. It lingers in the memory like a very bad dream.
—Joyce Carol Oates, New York Review of Books, 14 Aug. 2003
For 65 holes Norman dominated the classic rolling fairways and small, subtle greens of Olympic … with driving and iron play so solid that it mitigated mediocre putting.
—Jaime Diaz, Sports Illustrated, 8 Nov. 1993
Emergency funds are being provided to help mitigate the effects of the disaster.
medicines used to mitigate a patient's suffering
The Athletic Staff, New York Times, 31 Oct. 2025
While a yellow placard signals two or more major violations, these are typically corrected or mitigated during the inspection, according to the Sacramento County Food Inspection Guide.
—Sacbee.com, 31 Oct. 2025
The money owed can be mitigated.
—Dana O’Neil, CNN Money, 31 Oct. 2025
Iran has turned to longtime allies China and Russia in the aftermath of the war and to mitigate the results of Western sanctions that followed, amid failure to negotiate new nuclear agreements.
—MSNBC Newsweek, 31 Oct. 2025
See All Example Sentences for mitigate
Cite this Entry
“Mitigate.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/mitigate. Accessed 7 Nov. 2025.
Copy CitationKids Definition
mitigate
verb
Medical Definition
mitigate
transitive verb
Legal Definition
mitigate
verb
Estate of Arrowwood v. State, 894 P.2d 642 (1995)
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