Militate vs Mitigate
militate
to work/act against
mitigate
to make less severe
How to tell them apart
militATE has an ARMY in it (like MILITary), so it works AGAINST something. mitiGATE opens a GATE to let pressure out, making things LESS severe.
Test yourself
Fill in the blank: “Only one of these words means to work/act against. That word is ______.”
Choose: militate or mitigate
Show answer
Answer: militate
Militate means to work/act against, which matches to work/act against. Mitigate means to make less severe, so it is the wrong choice here.
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