attenuate
/əˈtɛn.juˌeɪt/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: 2.35 in modern English
9
Scrabble Score
9
Letters
4
Syllables
5
Unique Chars
Meaning
verb
Of a beer, to become less dense as a result of the conversion of sugar to alcohol.
Example Sentences
- "A manor-house clock from the far depths of shadow struck the hour, one, in a small, attenuated tone."
- "Clumps of attenuated turkeys were suspended here and there."
- "Lovell, wan and hollow-eyed, his arm in a sling, his once burly frame gaunt and attenuated with disease, nodded."
- "We may reject and reject till we attenuate history into sapless meagreness."
- ""It speedily became apparent that the entire strangeness of our circumstances and surroundings—great loss of weight, attenuated but highly oxygenated air, consequent exaggeration of the results of muscular effort, rapid development of weird plants from obscure spores, lurid sky—was exciting my companion unduly.""
- "A beer which does not attenuate to the expected level in fermentation will have more residual sugar and thus be sweeter and heavier-bodied."
Etymology
The verb is first attested in 1530, the adjective in 1626; borrowed from Latin attenuātus, the perfect passive participle of attenuō (see -ate (verb-forming suffix) and -ate (adjective-forming suffix)), from ad- (“to, towards, at”) + tenuo (“to make thin”), itself from tenuis (“thin”) + -ō (verb-forming suffix).
Origin
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /əˈtɛn.juˌeɪt/
- British English: /əˈtɛn.juˌeɪt/
Usage
Inflected Forms
attenuates (present, singular)
attenuating (participle, present)
attenuated (participle, past)
attenuated (past)
more attenuate (comparative)
most attenuate (superlative)