Alleviate

WORD OF THE DAY

alleviate / verb / uh-LEE-vee-ayt

Definition
1: relieve, lessen
2a: to make (something, such as pain or suffering) more bearable
2b: to partially remove or correct (something undesirable)

Examples
"People have tried to alleviate their climate anxiety in many ways."
— Antonia Mufarech, Smithsonian Magazine, 18 May 2022

For decades, as you probably know, researchers have found that when you tell patients that you're giving them medicine, many report that their symptoms are alleviated, even if they're only taking sugar pills.

— Daniel Zwerdling, Gourmet, August 2004

Did You Know?
Alleviate derives from the past participle of Late Latin alleviare ("to lighten or relieve"), which in turn was formed by combining the prefix ad- and the adjective levis, a Latin word meaning "having little weight," which also gave rise to the adjective light (as in "not heavy") in English.
We acquired alleviate in the 15th century, and for the first few centuries the word could mean either "to cause (something) to have less weight" or "to make (something) more tolerable."
The literal "make lighter" sense is no longer used, however, and today we have only the "relieve" sense.
Incidentally, not only is alleviate a synonym of relieve, it's also a cousin; relieve comes from levare ("to raise"), which in turn comes from levis.