Word of the Day

: December 2, 2007

attenuate

verb uh-TEN-yuh-wayt

What It Means

1 : to make thin or slender

2 : to lessen the amount, force, magnitude, or value of : weaken

3 : to reduce the severity, virulence, or vitality of

attenuate in Context

The use of computers, with their quiet keyboards, has greatly attenuated the noise level of the office, but Dee misses the sound of clacking typewriters.

Did You Know?

"Attenuate" ultimately comes from a combination of the Latin prefix "ad-," meaning "to" or "toward," and "tenuis," meaning "thin." It has been on the medical scene since the 16th century, when a health treatise recommended eating dried figs to attenuate bodily fluids. That treatment might be outmoded nowadays, but "attenuate" is still used in medicine to refer to procedures that weaken a pathogen or reduce the severity of a disease. Most often, though, "attenuate" implies that something has been reduced or weakened by physical or chemical means. You can attenuate wire by drawing it through successively smaller holes, or attenuate gold by hammering it into thin sheets. You can even attenuate the momentum of a play by including too many costume changes.

*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.