Meaning & use
attenuate
To reduce the force, strength, effectiveness, or intensity of something over time or distance.
See it in a sentence
Thick concrete walls attenuate the sound of traffic from the busy street outside.
The vaccine uses a weakened virus that has been attenuated to prevent illness.
A note on using this word
"Attenuates" is the third-person singular form; the word is common in physics, medicine, and engineering.
Words with a similar meaning
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Words with an opposite meaning
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