de-escalate
UK/diːˈɛskəleɪt/
de-escalate verb: to decrease in intensity or magnitude.
Verb
de-escalate (third-person singular simple present de-escalates, present participle de-escalating, simple past and past participle de-escalated)
- To decrease in intensity or magnitude.
- We asked authors to consider two scenarios imaginable in the next five years. In the first scenario, a minor skirmish escalated into a multiweek maritime blockade of Taiwan by China. Although several dozen members of the Chinese and Taiwanese military were killed, U.S. intervention eventually...2026 January 19, Bonnie S. Glaser, Zack Cooper, “A Failed Chinese Invasion of Taiwan Would Be Disastrous for Xi Jinping”, in Foreign Policy, archived from the original on 19 Jan 2026, Analysis
- Synonyms:
- disintensify, defuse
Synonyms of de-escalate
Forms of de-escalate
| third-person singular present | de-escalates |
|---|---|
| present participle | de-escalating |
| past participle | de-escalated |
| past | de-escalated |
| alternative form | deescalate |
Origin of de-escalate
From de- + escalate.
Words formed from de-escalate
Questions about de-escalate
- What does de-escalate mean?
- De-escalate means to decrease in intensity or magnitude.
- What part of speech is de-escalate?
- De-escalate is a verb.
- How do you pronounce de-escalate?
- De-escalate is pronounced /diːˈɛskəleɪt/ (UK).
- What is the past tense of de-escalate?
- The past tense of de-escalate is de-escalated.
Words near de-escalate in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: de-escalate (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Cite this entry: “de-escalate.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/de-escalate. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.