mitigation

noun

mit·​i·​ga·​tion ˌmi-tə-ˈgā-shən 

plural mitigations

: the act of mitigating something or the state of being mitigated : the process or result of making something less severe, dangerous, painful, harsh, or damaging

mitigation of suffering

mitigation of punishment

There was, in sum, a period during the Cold War … when a mitigation of the Cold War, including a renegotiation of some of its most troublesome tensions, was possible or even probable.

—John Lukacs

Examples of mitigation in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

But not all of that money would go to MTS, because the measure would be countywide and because SB 83 allows the money to fund other efforts, such as pollution mitigation. —David Garrick, San Diego Union-Tribune, 14 Feb. 2025

The company continues to focus on investments in wildfire mitigation, system hardening, and infrastructure improvements. —Quartz Intelligence Newsroom, Quartz, 13 Feb. 2025

The 2025 summit in Paris, governments and AI companies agreed at the time, would be the place to define red-lines for AI: risk thresholds that would require mitigations at the international level. —Billy Perrigo/paris, TIME, 11 Feb. 2025

The lander's science objectives include subsurface drilling, sample collection and X-ray imaging of Earth's magnetic field and dust mitigation. —Andrew Jones, Space.com, 10 Feb. 2025

Word History

First Known Use

14th century, in the meaning defined above

Medical Definition

mitigation

noun

mit·​i·​ga·​tion ˌmit-ə-ˈgā-shən 

1

: the act of mitigating or state of being mitigated

the cure, prevention, or mitigation of disease

—Encyclopedia Americana

2

: something that mitigates

a large number of drugs and mitigations … at the clinic

—The Journal of the American Medical Association