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Decreased vs Lessen - What's the difference?

decreased | lessen |

As verbs the difference between decreased and lessen

is that decreased is (decrease) while lessen is to make less; to diminish; to reduce.

decreased

English

Verb

(head)
  • (decrease)

  • decrease

    English

    Verb

    (decreas)
  • Of a quantity, to become smaller.
  • To make (a quantity) smaller.
  • Synonyms

    * (become smaller) drop, fall, go down, plummet (rapidly), plunge (rapidly), reduce, shrink, sink * (make smaller) abate, cut, decrement, lower, reduce

    Antonyms

    * (become larger) go up, grow, increase, rise, soar (rapidly), shoot up (rapidly) * (make larger) increase, increment, raise, up (informal)

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • An amount by which a quantity is decreased.
  • (knitting) A reduction in the number of stitches, usually accomplished by suspending the stitch to be decreased from another existing stitch or by knitting it together with another stitch. See .
  • Synonyms

    * (amount by which a quantity is decreased) cut, decrement, drop, fall, loss, lowering, reduction, shrinkage

    Antonyms

    * (amount by which a quantity is decreased) gain, increase, increment, raise , rise

    lessen

    English

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To make less; to diminish; to reduce.
  • * Calamy
  • Charity shall lessen his punishment.
  • * Atterbury
  • St. Paul chose to magnify his office when ill men conspired to lessen it.
  • * {{quote-news
  • , year=2011 , date=December 16 , author=Denis Campbell , title=Hospital staff 'lack skills to cope with dementia patients' , work=Guardian citation , page= , passage=Many hospitals have not taken simple steps to lessen the distress and confusion which dementia sufferers' often feel on being somewhere so unfamiliar – such as making signs large and easy to read, using colour schemes to help patients find their way around unfamiliar wards and not putting family mementoes such as photographs nearby.}}
  • To become less.
  • Anagrams

    * * English ergative verbs ----