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

The House recently passed a bipartisan bill called the Fix Our Forests Act that supposedly directs funding to forest restoration and wildfire prevention and mitigation. —Lahari Vuppaladhadiam, Chicago Tribune, 5 Sep. 2025

Break the rollout into milestones, track progress with dashboards and have an agile mitigation plan to address issues quickly. —Samuel Darwin, Forbes.com, 3 Sep. 2025

Centered in Foshan City in Guangdong, officials have responded aggressively to the outbreak, a response that some have compared to COVId-19 mitigation efforts in China. —Brie Stimson, FOXNews.com, 30 Aug. 2025

This early in his first term, Min, a former state legislator, has introduced legislation to track marine life along Southern California’s coastline and joined a bipartisan effort to boost wildfire mitigation efforts in shrubland ecosystems. —Kaitlyn Schallhorn, Oc Register, 29 Aug. 2025

Word History

First Known Use

14th century, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for mitigation

• abdication
• aberration
• abjuration
• abnegation
• abrogation
• acceptation
• acclamation
• acclimation
• accusation
• activation
• actuation
• acylation

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