Word of the Day
: September 6, 2025mollify
playWhat It Means
To mollify someone is to make them less angry. Mollify can also mean "to reduce in intensity."
// The celebrity's statement was intended to mollify critics.
// Time mollified her anger.
mollify in Context
"The philanthropic move is likely meant to mollify angry residents who are protesting against the celebrity-filled spectacle being held in their historic backyard." — Madeleine Marr, The Miami Herald, 25 June 2025
Did You Know?
Mollify is particularly well-suited for referring to the action of soothing emotional distress or anger and softening hard feelings: the word comes from the Latin adjective mollis, meaning "soft." Mollis is also the root of the English adjective emollient, used to describe something (such as a hand lotion) that softens or soothes, and the noun mollusk, which refers to any one of a large group of animals (such as snails and clams) that have a soft body without a backbone and that usually live in a shell.
Test Your Vocabulary with M-W Quizzes
Quiz
Unscramble the letters to form a word meaning "to make less severe or painful" or "to cause to become less harsh or hostile": GITTEMIA.
VIEW THE ANSWER
