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Glite Dictionary
🕊️ Reducing tension 🔧 Separating parts
defusion

defusion

1 7.3
Making a tense situation calmer, for example by calming people or removing a fuse
  • noun
  • /dɪˈfjuːʒən/
: 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

de-escalation
vsdefusion
5 4.8

Reducing the violence in a conflict to make it less dangerous

is broader referring to general tension reduction or physical fuse removal
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
pacification
vsdefusion
1 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
64 5.7

A rise in how serious or costly a situation becomes

How Calm

settlement
  • Formal
357 3.3
defusion
1 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.