alleviate
al·le·vi·ate/əˈli.vi.eɪt/verb
alleviate is spelled A-L-L-E-V-I-A-T-E, 4 syllables: al·le·vi·ate. The wrong spelling people search most is aleviate: about 390 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 19 of all searches for the word. Alleviate is a verb meaning “To reduce or lessen the severity of a pain or difficulty”.
How many letters and syllables are in alleviate?
| Letters | 9: A-L-L-E-V-I-A-T-E |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 4: al·le·vi·ate |
| In writing | 3.3 times per million words; the 14,509th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 2; the most searched, aleviate, about 390 Bing searches a month (all of them) |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026).
How do you spell alleviate?
Alleviate is spelled A-L-L-E-V-I-A-T-E. 2 wrong spellings are searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 13 of the searches for alleviate in either form.
Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.
How common is alleviate?
Alleviate appears 3.3 times per million words in written English, the 14,509th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce alleviate?
- /əˈli.vi.eɪt/
Alleviate has 4 syllables, split al·le·vi·ate in writing.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-alleviate.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of alleviate
- alleviates present, singular, he/she/it
- alleviating participle, present
- alleviated participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does alleviate mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
verb
- 1
To reduce or lessen the severity of a pain or difficulty.
alleviate his pain
- 2
(finance) to pay down partially.
There are different ways to alleviate your financial debt.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Alleviate in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense make less severe:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | adoucir, calmer, soulager, alléger, réduire |
| German | mildern, lindern, abschwächen |
| Portuguese | aliviar |
| Spanish | aliviar, aleviar |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does alleviate come from?
Borrowed from Late Latin alleviatus, past participle of alleviāre (“to lighten; to alleviate”). By surface analysis, al- + Latin lev- + -i- + -ate.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).