You searched for: “militate
militate (verb), militates; militated; militating
1. To have a substantial effect upon; to weigh heavily: Bob's lack of training as a machinist will militate against his application to work in a garage.
2. To be a powerful or conclusive factor in preventing something: Unfortunately, Shirley believed that the fact that she had a heavy foreign accent was militating against her getting a job as a translator.
3. To have an influence, especially a negative one, on something: The rapidly increasing price of fuel militated against Helen's plans to build and to maintain a greenhouse during the winter.
An influence against.
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This entry is located in the following unit: milit- (page 2)
militate, mitigate
militate (MIL uh tayt") (verb)
1. To have an influence, especially a negative one, on something to make it unlikely to happen or to prevent it from happening: Bill's inexperience will militate against him getting an early promotion.
2. To have weight or an effect on something; to serve as a strong influence: Danny's youthful appearance can only militate against him getting into a high position in the company, at least for now.
mitigate (MIT uh gayt") (verb)
1. To make an offense or crime less serious or more excusable: The lawyer tried to mitigate the circumstances of his client's crime so the punishment or penalty would be reduced, because evidence was produced that encouraged and enabled the judge to be more lenient.
2. To make something less harsh, severe, or violent; to moderate in force or intensity: There's no way to mitigate the effect of that unfavorable report.

These two often-confused words have different, mutually exclusive meanings and they function in different ways.

Militate does not take a noun object, but is followed by a preposition, often "against", plus a noun. It means "to have an influence, especially a negative one, on something": "Trade sanctions militate [not mitigate] against international cooperation."

Mitigate needs a noun object and means "to lessen the impact or degree of seriousness of something undesirable"; for example, "A six-month suspended sentence unfairly mitigates the seriousness of a vehicular homicide. There were mitigating circumstances beyond his control."

Word Entries at Get Words: “militate
To have a strong influence or force that is usually against someone or something. (1)