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Mitigate vs Extirpate - What's the difference?

mitigate | extirpate |

In lang=en terms the difference between mitigate and extirpate

is that mitigate is to downplay while extirpate is to surgically remove.

As verbs the difference between mitigate and extirpate

is that mitigate is to reduce, lessen, or decrease while extirpate is (obsolete) to clear an area of roots and stumps.

mitigate

English

Verb

(mitigat)
  • To reduce, lessen, or decrease.
  • * 1795
  • Measures are pursuing to prevent or mitigate the usual consequences of such outrages, and with the hope of their succeeding at least to avert general hostility.
  • * 1813
  • But in yielding to it the retaliation has been mitigated as much as possible, both in its extent and in its character...
  • * 1896
  • Then they tell us that vaccination will mitigate the disease that it will make it milder.
  • * 1901 — , ch 7
  • Then I discovered the brilliance of the landscape around was mitigated by blue spectacles.
  • * 1920
  • The plague had not been kind to him, yet had left him this small furry thing to mitigate his sorrow; and when one is very young, one can find great relief in the lively antics of a black kitten.
  • To downplay.
  • Synonyms

    * (to reduce or lessen) check, diminish, ease, lighten, mollify, pacify, palliate

    Antonyms

    * (to reduce or lessen) aggrandize, aggravate, exacerbate, incite, increase, intensify, irritate, worsen

    Coordinate terms

    * (l)

    extirpate

    English

    Verb

    (extirpat)
  • (obsolete) To clear an area of roots and stumps.
  • To pull up by the roots; uproot.
  • To destroy completely; to annihilate.
  • To surgically remove.
  • Synonyms

    * (to pull up by the roots) uproot, eradicate, extricate, deracinate * (to destroy completely) annihilate, destroy, eradicate, exterminate * (to surgically remove) excise * See also