mitigate
/ˈmɪt.ɪ.ɡeɪt/verb
mitigate is spelled M-I-T-I-G-A-T-E: 8 letters and 3 syllables. It appears 3.5 times per million words in written English, the 14,106th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a verb, mitigate means “To reduce, lessen, or decrease and thereby to make less severe or easier to bear” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).
How many letters and syllables are in mitigate?
| Letters | 8: M-I-T-I-G-A-T-E |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 3 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 3.5 times per million words; the 14,106th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How common is mitigate?
Mitigate appears 3.5 times per million words in written English, the 14,106th 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 mitigate?
- /ˈmɪt.ɪ.ɡeɪt/
Mitigate has 3 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-mitigate.ogg, En-au-mitigate.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of mitigate
- mitigates present, singular, he/she/it
- mitigating participle, present
- mitigated participle, past
- more mitigate comparative
- most mitigate superlative
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does mitigate mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
verb
- 1
To reduce, lessen, or decrease and thereby to make less severe or easier to bear.
- 2
To downplay.
- 3
proscribedTo give force or effect toward preventing a problem.
We've mitigated against the chance of flooding.
adjective
- 1
obsoleteMitigated, alleviated.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Mitigate in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense to reduce, lessen, or decrease:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | réduire, atténuer, mitiger |
| German | mildern, abschwächen, abmildern, lindern |
| Portuguese | mitigar, atenuar, pacificar |
| Spanish | mitigar |
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 mitigate come from?
From Middle English mitigaten (“to relieve pain, soothe; (swelling) to abate; (hemorrhoids) to relieve; (the mind) to placate, appease; to end, check; to stop, cease”), from mitigat(e) (“mitigated, alleviated, relived”, also used as the past participle of mitigaten) + -en (verb-forming suffix), borrowed from Latin mītigātus, the perfect passive participle of mītigō (“to make soft, ripe; to tame, pacify”), from mītis (“gentle, mild, ripe”) + -igō (“to do, make”), of uncertain origin, but perhaps from Proto-Indo-European *meh₁y- (“mild, soft”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).