Abate and alleviate both mean that something bad grows less severe, but they sit on opposite sides of the action. To abate is for the bad thing itself — a storm, pain, an uproar — to die down, often of its own accord. To alleviate is to make suffering less severe: someone or something does the easing. The storm abates by itself; medicine alleviates the pain.
Both verbs reduce severity, and the roots show the split. Abate comes through Old French abattre, 'to beat down': a violent thing battered until it subsides — and in modern use it usually subsides on its own, which is why abate is so often intransitive ('the wind abated'). Alleviate comes from the Latin alleviare, 'to lighten', built on levis, 'light': a load deliberately made lighter, which is why alleviate always takes an object ('alleviate the pain'). One watches a force drain away; the other reaches in and lightens it.
abate
To abate is to die down — to become weaker, gentler, or less severe over time. Storms abate, pain abates, public anger abates. The word almost always describes the force of something unpleasant or overwhelming draining away rather than the thing disappearing all at once: it is still there, but its intensity is easing off. Unlike diminish, which tracks a shrinking in size or number, abate is about a violent or unwelcome thing losing its grip. It can also be used transitively — to reduce something deliberately, as in measures taken to abate noise pollution.
alleviate
To alleviate is to lighten a load you cannot fully remove — from the Latin alleviare, 'to lighten', built on levis, 'light'. Painkillers alleviate pain; aid alleviates hardship; an apology can alleviate tension. Like its cousin mitigate, it works on severity, not existence: the problem remains, but its weight is eased. It is the gentle opposite of exacerbate — where one presses the burden down harder, alleviate lifts part of it off.
| abate | alleviate | |
|---|---|---|
| Meaning | die down, lose force | make suffering less severe |
| Who acts | no one — it eases off itself | someone or something does the easing |
| Grammar | usually intransitive (the storm abated) | always transitive (alleviate the pain) |
| Often with | storm, wind, pain, anger, flooding | pain, poverty, symptoms, pressure |
| Root | Old French abattre, to beat down | Latin alleviare, to lighten |
| Example | The storm showed no sign of abating. | Measures to alleviate poverty. |
Picture the two scenes. A downpour that tires on its own while a man waits it out under a shelter, its last drop landing in his outstretched palm — nobody stopped it — that is abate. A patient whose pain fades only when the spoon of medicine arrives — someone eased it — that is alleviate. Both end with less suffering; the difference is the hand. If the bad thing dies down by itself, it abates; if a remedy lightens it, the remedy alleviates it.
abate
- iBy dawn the wind had abated and the fishing boats put out again.
- iiPublic anger abated once the minister finally apologised.
- iiiThere is little sign that demand for housing will abate.
alleviate
- iThe charity distributes food to alleviate hunger in the flooded region.
- iiA cold compress can alleviate the swelling overnight.
- iiiNothing the airline offered could alleviate the passengers' frustration.
They meet in sentences about pain: 'the pain abated' and 'the drug alleviated the pain' can describe the same afternoon. The tell is the subject. With abate, the bad thing itself is the subject and simply eases off; with alleviate, the subject is whatever does the easing, and the bad thing is its object. Abate also has a technical transitive use ('abate noise pollution'), but everyday English leaves abating to the storm.