dilute

Imagine you're making orange juice from concentrate. You add water to dilute it—to make it less intense and more drinkable. That's exactly what diluting something does! It reduces its concentration by adding a liquid, like water. But "dilute" isn't just about liquids; you can dilute the impact of bad news with some good news, or dilute your effectiveness by trying to do too much at once.

Think of it like adding ice to a glass of soda. As the ice melts, it dilutes the drink, making the flavor thinner and less sweet. Similarly, if someone's story is filled with too many unnecessary details, you might say the core truth has been "diluted"—meaning the most important part is now harder to find because it has been spread too thin.

To dilute something means to reduce its strength, purity, or concentration by adding a liquid (usually water) or another substance to it. It's the process of taking something potent and making it milder. For example, a gardener might dilute a concentrated fertilizer with water so it doesn't harm the plants, or a painter might dilute thick paint to create a translucent wash on the canvas.

However, dilution isn't limited to physical substances. You can also dilute experiences, ideas, or even value. If you are delivering bad news, you might "dilute" it by starting with something positive first, effectively softening the blow. In the world of finance, a company might dilute its shares by issuing more of them, which means each individual share now represents a smaller piece of the overall pie.

You’ll also see it as an adjective: a dilute solution is a weak mixture—there isn’t much of the active ingredient compared to the amount of liquid. The word comes from the Latin diluere, meaning "to wash away." Think of it as washing away the intensity or potency of a substance. A politician might try to dilute criticism by acknowledging some minor mistakes while defending their overall record. Whether you are making juice, softening a harsh statement, or lessening the impact of a powerful force, to dilute is to weaken something by spreading it out until it is less concentrated.