mollify
verb

- to make someone less angry or upset, or to make something less severe or more gentle

The Cambridge Dictionary

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WORD ORIGIN

Mollify is from the Old French mollifier, from the late Latin mollificare “to make soft” (from Latin mollis = soft + the root of facere = to make).

Mollify was originally used to describe materials. The figurative sense of calming or appeasing evolved during the 15th century.

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FEEL-GOOD WORDS

Mollify is a nice sounding word. Its consonants are soft and gentle, unlike some of its opposites: agitate, aggravate, and discombobulate,... which have sharp, energetic sounds.

Simply pronouncing a word like mollify can make us feel good, it strives to reduce tension and restore harmony, to make our world a better place.

The following 10 words (like mollify) are rated by native-speakers as being among the most beautiful in the English language. Can you match them to their definitions?

1. elixir

2. evanescent

3. iridescent

4. lullaby

5. luminous

6. mellifluous

7. petrichor

8. reverie

9. sonorous

10. sumptious

producing a display of rainbowlike colours / music or song that puts you to sleep / the state of being pleasantly lost in one’s thoughts / lush, luxurious / the pleasant, earthy smell after rain / giving off a bright, shining light / vanishing quickly, lasting a very short time / a life-affirming, magical potion / sweet-sounding / an imposingly deep and full sound

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1. elixir = a life-affirming, magical potion

2. evanescent = vanishing quickly, lasting a very short time

3. iridescent = producing a display of rainbowlike colours

4. lullaby = music or song that puts you to sleep

5. luminous = giving off a bright, shining light

6. mellifluous = sweet-sounding

7. petrichor = the pleasant, earthy smell after rain

8. reverie = the state of being pleasantly lost in one’s thoughts

9. sonorous = an imposingly deep and full sound

10. sumptious = lush, luxurious

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SYNONYMS

- the restoration of friendly relations between once-hostile parties

accommodation, accord, acquiescence, agreement, amends, an end to hostilities, appeasement, bread and circuses, bread and games, bringing back together (again), bringing together, coming together, communion, conciliation, disarming, dovishness, détente, entente, fellowship, fence-mending, harmonisation, increased understanding, MOLLIFICATION, pacification, palliation, peace-mongering, peacemaking, peace offering, placating, placation, propitiation, rapport, rapprochement, reconcilement, reconciliation, restoration (of friendly relations, of harmony), reunification, reunion, reuniting

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