Meaning & use
mitigated
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“mitigated” is a form of “mitigate”. See that entry for the full set of meanings.
Meanings
adjectivebefore a noun
Made less harmful, serious or severe than it would have been.
Grammar: Usually comes before a noun: a mitigated risk, mitigated damage.
Patterns
- mitigated risk
- mitigated effects
The mitigated risk allowed the company to go ahead with the project.
Thanks to new walls, the mitigated flood damage was far lower than expected.
Officials presented a mitigated version of the original warning.
verbtransitive
Past tense and past participle of mitigate: to make something bad less severe.
Grammar: Takes an object: the new law mitigated the harm.
Patterns
- mitigated the effects of something
- be mitigated by something
Planting trees mitigated the effects of the heat in the city.
The judge said his sentence was mitigated by his honest confession.
Early treatment mitigated the damage from the infection.
Word forms
| base form | mitigate |
|---|---|
| third person singular | mitigates |
| present participle | mitigating |
Common combinations
- mitigated risk
- A mitigated risk is easier to insure.
- mitigated by
- His guilt was somewhat mitigated by the pressure he was under.
- mitigated damage
- The mitigated damage meant repairs took only a week.
- largely mitigated
- The threat was largely mitigated by quick action.
- mitigated circumstances
- The court looked at mitigated circumstances before deciding the penalty.
Synonyms and how they differ
- reduced
- Reduced just means made smaller, while mitigated specifically means made less harsh or harmful.
- alleviated
- Alleviated is mostly used for easing pain or suffering, whereas mitigated is wider and fits risks and penalties.
- softened
- Softened is more informal and suggests a gentler tone or impact.
Opposites
Word family
- mitigate verb
- to make something bad less severe
- mitigation noun
- the act of reducing the severity of something
- mitigating adjective
- making something less serious, as in mitigating factors
- unmitigated adjective
- complete, with nothing to lessen it
Commonly confused: mitigated or militated? mitigated or litigated?
mitigated vs militated
Militated, from militate, means had a strong effect against something, and is quite different from mitigated.
mitigated vs litigated
Litigated means taken to court, which is a legal process, not a lessening.
Practice
The sentence was ____ by the fact that he had no previous convictions.
Choose one answer.
Mitigated means made less severe, which suits a lighter sentence. Aggravated would make it worse, and militated and litigated have different meanings.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “mitigated”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.