mitigate / ameliorate
Mitigate reduces harm or severity. Ameliorate improves an unsatisfactory condition more broadly.
Ten-word study set
Change and degree
Words for increases, decreases, pauses, improvements, and amounts beyond what is needed.
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Track what changes—and in which direction
These words become easier to separate when you picture a before-and-after state. Abate and subside describe something losing force. Ameliorate improves a bad condition, exacerbate makes one worse, and mitigate limits its severity without necessarily removing the cause. Abridge shortens, augment adds, and abeyance pauses an activity without ending it.
Quantity words require a different question: are you describing abundance or judging excess? Things abound when they exist in large numbers; something is superfluous when it is more than the situation needs. Naming the subject and the result—storms abate, water subsides, policies mitigate risk—keeps these near neighbors from becoming interchangeable.
abate / subside
Both can mean become less intense, but subside often suggests settling to a lower level while abate emphasizes diminished force.
augment / abound / superfluous
Augment is the act of adding, abound describes plenty already present, and superfluous judges an amount as unnecessary.
verb · ig-ZAS-er-bayt
exacerbate
To make a problem, conflict, or harmful condition worse.
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verb · MIT-uh-gayt
mitigate
To make something harmful, severe, or painful less serious.
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