de-escalate

Questions about de-escalate

What does de-escalate mean?

de-escalate means "diminish in size, scope, or intensity". That is the primary sense; the word has 2 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in de-escalate?

de-escalate has 3 syllables and divides as de-e-sca-late under the regular spelling rules. It is not in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary, so that comes from how the word is written rather than from a recorded pronunciation, and no stress or phonetic transcription is claimed for it.

What is another word for de-escalate?

Close synonyms include weaken, step down. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

What is the opposite of de-escalate?

The recorded antonyms are escalate.

Is de-escalate a common word?

de-escalate is banded "Rare" — specialist or archaic — most readers will not have met it. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.