today's word is..."mitigate"

sure...you THINK you know what it means...but try using it correctly in a way other than "mitigating circumstances"

mitigate \MIT-uh-gayt\ verb 1 : to cause to become less harsh or hostile : mollify *2 : to make less severe or painful : alleviate 3 : extenuate

Example sentence: She was determined to help mitigate the suffering of the people in Darfur.

Would it be correct to say, "His boyish appearance mitigated against his getting an early promotion"? Most usage commentators would say "no." They feel such examples demonstrate a long-standing confusion between "mitigate" and the look-alike "militate." Those two words are not closely related etymologically ("mitigate" descends from the Latin verb "mitigare," meaning "to soften," whereas "militate" traces to "militare," another Latin verb that means "to engage in warfare"), nor are they particularly close in meaning ("militate" means "to have weight or effect"). The confusion between the two has existed for long enough that one commentator thinks "mitigate against" should be accepted as an idiomatic alternative to "militate," but if you want to avoid criticism, you should keep "mitigate" and "militate" distinct.

[some info from dictionary.com]