"de-escalate" meaning in English

See de-escalate in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Verb

IPA: /diːˈɛskəleɪt/ [UK] Forms: de-escalates [present, singular, third-person], de-escalating [participle, present], de-escalated [participle, past], de-escalated [past], deescalate [alternative]
Etymology: From de- + escalate. Etymology templates: {{prefix|en|de|escalate}} de- + escalate Head templates: {{en-verb}} de-escalate (third-person singular simple present de-escalates, present participle de-escalating, simple past and past participle de-escalated)
  1. (ambitransitive) To decrease in intensity or magnitude. Tags: ambitransitive Synonyms: disintensify Derived forms: de-escalation Translations (to decrease in intensity or magnitude): desescalar (Catalan), αποκλιμακώνω (apoklimakóno) (Greek), desescalar (Portuguese), desescalar (Spanish), trappa ned (Swedish), trappa ner (Swedish)

Inflected forms

Alternative forms

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  "etymology_text": "From de- + escalate.",
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          "ref": "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:",
          "text": "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 forced China to de-escalate.",
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        "To decrease in intensity or magnitude."
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        "(ambitransitive) To decrease in intensity or magnitude."
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          "code": "ca",
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          "sense": "to decrease in intensity or magnitude",
          "word": "desescalar"
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          "word": "αποκλιμακώνω"
        },
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          "lang": "Portuguese",
          "lang_code": "pt",
          "sense": "to decrease in intensity or magnitude",
          "word": "desescalar"
        },
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          "lang": "Spanish",
          "lang_code": "es",
          "sense": "to decrease in intensity or magnitude",
          "word": "desescalar"
        },
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          "code": "sv",
          "lang": "Swedish",
          "lang_code": "sv",
          "sense": "to decrease in intensity or magnitude",
          "word": "trappa ned"
        },
        {
          "code": "sv",
          "lang": "Swedish",
          "lang_code": "sv",
          "sense": "to decrease in intensity or magnitude",
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          "text": "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 forced China to de-escalate.",
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      ],
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        "(ambitransitive) To decrease in intensity or magnitude."
      ],
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        "ambitransitive"
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    {
      "code": "ca",
      "lang": "Catalan",
      "lang_code": "ca",
      "sense": "to decrease in intensity or magnitude",
      "word": "desescalar"
    },
    {
      "code": "el",
      "lang": "Greek",
      "lang_code": "el",
      "roman": "apoklimakóno",
      "sense": "to decrease in intensity or magnitude",
      "word": "αποκλιμακώνω"
    },
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      "code": "pt",
      "lang": "Portuguese",
      "lang_code": "pt",
      "sense": "to decrease in intensity or magnitude",
      "word": "desescalar"
    },
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      "code": "es",
      "lang": "Spanish",
      "lang_code": "es",
      "sense": "to decrease in intensity or magnitude",
      "word": "desescalar"
    },
    {
      "code": "sv",
      "lang": "Swedish",
      "lang_code": "sv",
      "sense": "to decrease in intensity or magnitude",
      "word": "trappa ned"
    },
    {
      "code": "sv",
      "lang": "Swedish",
      "lang_code": "sv",
      "sense": "to decrease in intensity or magnitude",
      "word": "trappa ner"
    }
  ],
  "word": "de-escalate"
}

Download raw JSONL data for de-escalate meaning in English (3.0kB)

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This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2026-02-14 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2026-02-01 using wiktextract (f492ef9 and 59dc20b). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.