On December 14, 2012, at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, Adam Lanza kills 20 first graders and six school employees before turning a gun on himself. Earlier that day, he killed his mother at the home they shared. The Sandy Hook shooting was, at the time, the second-deadliest mass shooting in the United […]

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 13, 2025 is:

alleviate • \uh-LEE-vee-ayt\  • verb

To alleviate something is to make it less painful, difficult, or severe. Alleviate can also mean "to partially remove or correct."

// There's no cure for the common cold, but there are various treatments that may alleviate some of the symptoms.

// The new tunnel should alleviate traffic congestion on the bridge.

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Examples:

"The funds are meant to alleviate monetary barriers and enhance the fashion industry's talent pipeline." — Rosemary Feitelberg, Footwear News, 30 Oct. 2025

Did you know?

Now for a bit of light reading. Alleviate comes from Latin levis, meaning "having little weight." (Levis also gave rise to the English adjective light as in "not heavy.") In its early days during the 16th century, alleviate could mean both "to cause (something) to have less weight" or "to make (something) more tolerable." The literal "make lighter" sense is no longer used, and today only the "relieve, lessen" sense remains. Incidentally, not only is alleviate a synonym of relieve, it's also a cousin: relieve comes from Latin levare ("to raise"), which in turn comes from levis.

By Christian J. Collier