mollification
- noun
- /ˌmɒlɪfɪˈkeɪʃən/
- Formal
:
apaciguamiento
- Little more than a centerpiece for international mollification, he played an integral part in U.S. plans to make Guatemala a showcase for anticommunism.
Examples
-
Most important, however, was his mollification of domestic critics with the argument that Japan's support of Operation Enduring Freedom was not an exercise in collective defense, but rather an independent initiative undertaken in response to the UN's call for forceful action by its members to meet the threat of global terrorism.
Academic text (2003) -
"Now stop fighting, you two," said the middle head with a tone of mixed exasperation and mollification.
Fiction book (2001) -
Art isn't only capable of such mollification; it already provides as much, whether we are conscious of it or not.
Academic text (2007) -
And it dawned on him then, in that queasy moment, that Hector Nieves, first with his electric display of rage and again with his blink-of-an-eye mollification, was in fact desperately maneuvering to prolong the contact between them.
Fiction book (1997) -
After hours of discussion, her calm and patient mollification finally eased the tensions in the room.
-
The manager's mollification of the angry customer helped resolve the conflict peacefully.
-
His gentle words of mollification made her feel understood and less upset.
Synonyms
22
7.4
To calm someone by giving in to their demands to avoid conflict
6
2.6
An action that makes someone less angry or upset
Calming people who are angry or upset
An action that makes someone less angry by calming them or giving them what they want
Antonyms
How Calming
319
1.0
51
3.7
- Formal
22
7.4
- Specialized
3
7.7
Surface Forms
Morphology
mollification = mollify (semi-transparent) = moll + ify + ation
The noun is a regular nominalization of 'mollify', but the underlying stem 'moll-' is not transparent to most learners.
Etymology
Mollification comes from the Latin word mollis, meaning 'soft', and a part that means 'to make', seen in the word factory. So mollification is like 'making soft', which is why it means calming or soothing someone.