Alleviate: make a difficulty less severe
Alleviate means to make a difficulty or burden less severe. It comes from Latin alleviare, meaning to lighten. Opening a second entrance may alleviate congestion at an event by reducing the pressure on one doorway, even if some waiting remains and the crowd has not disappeared.
Go deeper
Reduction rather than removal
Alleviate is a verb meaning to make something difficult less severe. Its source is Latin alleviare, meaning to lighten, related to levis, meaning light in weight.
A second entrance might alleviate congestion by spreading arrivals across two doorways. It need not remove every queue for the word to apply. The central meaning is a reduction in the difficulty.
Common objects of the verb include:
- Alleviate pressure.
- Alleviate congestion.
- Alleviate a burden.
Use the verb directly with the thing reduced: the extra counter alleviated the pressure on reception. Avoid treating it as a synonym for eliminate. If a problem has been completely removed, a stronger verb may describe the outcome more accurately.