100 Words Almost Everyone Mixes Up or Mangles by Editors of the American Heritage Dictionaries

Author:Editors of the American Heritage Dictionaries
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

54

mitigate

(mĭt′ĭ-gāt′)

verb

1. To moderate a quality or condition in force or intensity; alleviate. 2. To take measures to moderate or alleviate something: a program to mitigate against beach erosion. 3. To make alterations to land to make it less polluted or more hospitable to wildlife.

[Middle English mitigaten, from Latin mītigāre (with past participle mītigātus) : mītis, soft + agere, to drive, do.]

❧ The words mitigate and militate have entirely different meanings but are frequently confused. Mitigate means “to moderate the force or intensity of something; alleviate.” Thus a judge might mitigate the sentence of a person convicted of a crime, technology can be designed to mitigate the effects of burning fossil fuels, and measures can be taken to mitigate the risks associated with overcrowding in school buildings.

Properly used, militate means “to have force or influence,” and is often followed by a prepositional phrase starting with in favor of, for, or against. Thus, a judge might find that the evidence militates in favor of dismissing an indictment, the fact that a student population is especially large might militate for keeping older and younger students in separate wings of a building, and the proximity of a power plant to a neighborhood might militate against burning certain fuels.

Mitigate is sometimes followed by against when it means to take measures to alleviate something, as in What steps can the town take to mitigate against damage from coastal storms?

But using mitigate instead of militate is a mistake, as in this quote from the New York Times: “One Kerry strategist argued that the stunningly high rates of early voting in some places could mitigate against sending the principals back, because it arguably reduces the additional gain from a candidate’s visit.”

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