mitigation vs step-down

mitigation and step-down both are nouns.

Word	Noun	Adjective	Verb	Adverb
mitigation	Yes	No	No	No
step-down	Yes	No	No	No

As nouns, step-down is a hypernym of mitigation; that is, step-down is a word with a broader meaning than mitigation:

mitigation: to act in such a way as to cause an offense to seem less serious
step-down: the act of decreasing or reducing something

Other hypernyms of mitigation include decrease, diminution, reduction.

As nouns, step-down is a hypernym of mitigation; that is, step-down is a word with a broader meaning than mitigation:

Other hypernyms of mitigation include decrease, diminution, reduction.

mitigation (noun)	step-down (noun)
to act in such a way as to cause an offense to seem less serious	the act of decreasing or reducing something
the action of lessening in severity or intensity
a partial excuse to mitigate censure; an attempt to represent an offense as less serious than it appears by showing mitigating circumstances