Meaning & use
unmitigated
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Meanings
adjectivebefore a noun
Complete and total, with nothing to make it better or less bad; used mostly of unwelcome things.
Grammar: Used before a negative noun: an unmitigated disaster.
Patterns
- an unmitigated + negative noun
The festival was an unmitigated disaster, with rain, delays and no food.
He showed unmitigated rudeness to the waiter.
The project ended in unmitigated failure.
adjectivecomparableformal
Not made less severe or reduced in any way.
Grammar: A more literal use: unmitigated damage means damage not reduced by anything.
Patterns
- unmitigated by something
The effects of the drought were unmitigated by any rain.
Unmitigated pollution would soon make the river unusable.
Common combinations
- unmitigated disaster
- The trip was an unmitigated disaster.
- unmitigated failure
- His first novel was an unmitigated failure.
- unmitigated nonsense
- That claim is unmitigated nonsense.
- unmitigated gall
- He had the unmitigated gall to ask for a refund.
- unmitigated evil
- The film portrays the king as unmitigated evil.
Synonyms and how they differ
- utter
- Utter is a common intensifier that fits most contexts, while unmitigated is more dramatic and nearly always negative.
- absolute
- Absolute can describe good or bad things, whereas unmitigated is mostly used for bad ones.
- complete
- Complete is neutral and plain, with none of the strong tone of unmitigated.
- outright
- Outright suggests something open and direct, such as an outright lie, rather than something total and unrelieved.
Opposites
Word family
- mitigate verb
- to make something less severe
- mitigation noun
- the act of reducing the effect of something
- mitigating adjective
- making something less serious, as in mitigating circumstances
- mitigated adjective
- made less severe
Commonly confused: unmitigated or militated?
unmitigated vs militated
Militate means to work against something, and it is sometimes mistaken for mitigate because of the similar sound.
Practice
Which noun would NOT normally follow unmitigated?
Choose one answer.
Unmitigated normally goes with unwelcome nouns such as disaster, failure or nonsense. Sunshine is pleasant, so the pairing sounds odd.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “unmitigated”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.