mitigation

noun

mit·​i·​ga·​tion ˌmi-tə-ˈgā-shən 

plural mitigations

: the act of mitigating something or the state of being mitigated : the process or result of making something less severe, dangerous, painful, harsh, or damaging

mitigation of suffering

mitigation of punishment

There was, in sum, a period during the Cold War … when a mitigation of the Cold War, including a renegotiation of some of its most troublesome tensions, was possible or even probable.

—John Lukacs

Examples of mitigation in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

The rise of smart home integration is enabling radon mitigation systems to respond dynamically. —Christopher McFadden, Interesting Engineering, 24 Oct. 2025

For all of the extenuating circumstances and points made in mitigation by Tudor, Juventus have taken just three points from fixtures that yielded nine in the corresponding games last season. —James Horncastle, New York Times, 23 Oct. 2025

Screen time is a systemic issue, so an individual response—your screen-time monitoring, your screen-time mitigation—will likely be of little use. —Ian Bogost, The Atlantic, 23 Oct. 2025

In another climate change mitigation push, the company aims to reach zero landfill waste for its Naia spinning production in the United States by 2030. —Sarah Jones, Sourcing Journal, 20 Oct. 2025

Word History

First Known Use

14th century, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for mitigation

• abdication
• aberration
• abjuration
• abnegation
• abrogation
• acceptation
• acclamation
• acclimation
• accusation
• activation
• actuation
• acylation

Medical Definition

mitigation

noun

mit·​i·​ga·​tion ˌmit-ə-ˈgā-shən 

1

: the act of mitigating or state of being mitigated

the cure, prevention, or mitigation of disease

—Encyclopedia Americana

2

: something that mitigates

a large number of drugs and mitigations … at the clinic

—The Journal of the American Medical Association