🤷 Making less serious 💊 Easing symptoms

palliation

9.9

To make a bad action seem less serious by giving reasons

noun
/ˌpæl.iˈeɪ.ʃən/

Formal

: paliación

His speech was a palliation of the manager's mistakes, making them seem like minor oversights.

Examples

There was no palliation for her actions during the trial.
Attempts at palliation only made the public trust in the company decline further.
The defense attorney argued in palliation of her client's actions, emphasizing his difficult upbringing.
The lawyer's palliation of the crime was not convincing.
The doctor focused on palliation rather than a cure, helping the patient feel more comfortable during treatment.
Many politicians use palliation to soften the impact of their controversial decisions on the public.
In his speech, he resorted to palliation, attempting to downplay the severity of the accusations against him.

Synonyms

mitigation

vspalliation

Formal

3 5.8

Giving reasons or excuses to make a wrong action seem less serious

focuses on the wrong act itself rather than its outcomes

extenuation

vspalliation

Formal

1 9.6

An explanation that makes a wrong action seem less serious

makes wrongdoing seem less serious without stressing forgiveness

Antonyms

aggravation

Specialized

3 5.4

An action that makes a problem or illness worse

How Serious

condemnation

56 5.5

acknowledgment

42 4.2

palliation

Formal

9.9

Surface Forms

palliation singular

palliations plural

Morphology

palliation = palliate (transparent) = palliate + ion

Standard nominalization from the verb 'palliate' (verb -> noun), so the noun's meaning is directly derived from the verb.

Etymology

Palliation comes from the Latin words palliare and pallium, which mean 'cloak'. Imagine wrapping a fault in a cloak to hide how bad it is, so palliation can mean making a wrongdoing seem less serious.