attenuated

adjective

at·​ten·​u·​at·​ed ə-ˈten-yə-ˌwā-təd 

-yü-ˌā-təd

1

: lessened or weakened (as in amount, force, or magnitude)

"It wasn't that there was less effect, or an attenuated effect. There was no effect at all."

—Roger Simon

… people who are not, even in Facebook's attenuated sense of the word, your "friends" …

—Robert Wright

But I am aware that my connection to Russia is an attenuated connection. I do not know Russian or Russia as well as my parents did.

—Keith Gessen

The attenuated [radio] signals from Phoenix and LA were too scratchy to enjoy.

—A. E. Maxwell

2

medical : being or containing a pathogenic agent that has been altered to be of greatly reduced virulence

Measles vaccines are just that, weakened (or attenuated) measles viruses.

—Ann Finkbeiner et al.

Influenza viruses for both the inactivated and live attenuated influenza vaccines are initially grown in embryonated hens' eggs.

—Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

3

: long and slender from or as if from having been stretched

Glass artist Lino Tagliapietra, who is widely known for his elegant, attenuated glass vessels …

—Steven Litt

… the glamorous women … appear impossibly graceful with their attenuated figures, long necks, and slender arms.

—Stephanie L. Herdrich

Did you know?

A friendship can become attenuated if neither person bothers to keep in touch. Radio waves can become attenuated by the shape of the landscape, by foliage, by atmospheric conditions, and simply by distance. Factory workers and rock musicians often use noise-attenuating ear plugs to save their hearing. To attenuate something isn't to stop it, just to tone it down.

Examples of attenuated in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

That connection was too attenuated, Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote for the court. —Adam Liptak, New York Times, 21 Feb. 2025

That's why the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that anyone vaccinated before 1968 get at least one dose of the live attenuated vaccine. —Maria Godoy, NPR, 21 Feb. 2025

Doing so will help increase group morale and inflate an attenuated potency. —Charlie Winter, Foreign Affairs, 31 Jan. 2017

The traditional means of video-game storytelling—cutscenes, voice-over narration, and conversations with other characters—are present only in the most attenuated, enigmatic forms. —Gabriel Winslow-Yost, Harper's Magazine, 23 Sep. 2024

Word History

First Known Use

1798, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Rhymes for attenuated

• abbreviated
• accelerated
• accentuated
• accommodated
• acculturated
• accumulated
• acidulated
• adjudicated
• administrated
• adulterated
• affiliated
• agglomerated