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Glite Dictionary
🕊️ Reducing tension 🔧 Separating parts
defusion

defusion

7.3
Making a tense situation calmer, for example by calming people or removing a fuse
  • noun
  • /dɪˈfjuːʒən/
translation icon : desescalada
  • The workshop focused on defusion strategies that help participants handle conflict more peacefully.

Examples

  • During therapy, she learned about the importance of defusion to reduce her anxiety and gain distance from her troubling thoughts.

  • A process in ACT, cognitive defusion (Hayes, 2004), helps individuals understand that thoughts are just thoughts, without minimizing the very real circumstances behind them.

    Academic text (2018)

  • He practiced defusion techniques to lessen his emotional responses to stressful situations at work.

Synonyms

defusing
vsdefusion
  • Specialized
1 5.8

Removing danger from something, for example making a bomb harmless

also covers reducing tension in disputes rather than only making devices safe
de-escalation
vsdefusion
4.8

Reducing the violence in a conflict to make it less dangerous

is broader referring to general tension reduction or physical fuse removal
pacification
vsdefusion
7.7

Calming people who are angry or upset

is about general tension reduction or taking out a physical safety part
depressurization
vsdefusion
  • US
7.2

A reduction of stress or tension between people and groups

is similar but also includes removing a physical safety component

Antonyms

escalation
65 5.7

A rise in how serious or costly a situation becomes

How Calm

settlement
  • Formal
384 3.3
defusion
7.3

Surface Forms

defusion singular
defusions plural

Morphology

defusion = fusion (semi-transparent) = de + fus + ion

While the structure is clear as 'de-' + 'fusion', the sense of 'reducing tension' is a figurative extension not directly predictable from the base.

Etymology

Defusion comes from the parts de- meaning 'remove' and fusion meaning 'joining', and it is like the verb defuse used when you take a bomb's fuse away or calm a tense situation. So, defusion can mean the act of removing a fuse or the act of reducing tension and danger.